Background: Fractional flow reserve (FFR) measurements accurately assess functional relevance in intermediate grade coronary lesions. A significant relationship between hemodynamic stenosis severity and optical coherence tomography (OCT)-derived intraluminal dimensions has recently been demonstrated. However, morphologic thresholds to identify significant stenoses are variable and exploration of this correlation in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) remains currently incomplete. This study aimed at comparing the diagnostic value of intraluminal parameters as determined by OCT to predict FFR ≤0.8 in lesions of patients with versus without DM.
Methods: In 100 patients (DM = 56, non-DM = 44) with 142 coronary de novo lesions (DM = 80, non-DM = 62) of intermediate grade as determined by quantitative coronary angiography, we performed OCT and FFR. Stenoses were defined functionally relevant if FFR was ≤0.8.
Results: FFR measurements in the overall study cohort, the DM and the non-DM group correlated significantly with minimal lumen area (MLA) [overall: r (2) = 0.339, DM: r (2) = 0.341, non-DM: r (2) = 0.355 (all p < 0.001)], percent area stenosis [overall: r (2) = 0.352, DM: r (2) = 0.376, non-DM: r (2) = 0.351 (all p < 0.001)] and minimal lumen diameter [overall: r (2) = 0.333, DM: r (2) = 0.277, non-DM: r (2) = 0.417 (all p < 0.001)] without differing statistically between diabetic and non-diabetic patients (p = ns). Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that among OCT-derived parameters, MLA predicted FFR ≤0.8 with the best diagnostic efficiency and with similar cut-off values for all patients [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.836, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.772-0.901, cut-off value = 1.64 mm(2)] as well as for diabetic (AUC = 0.840, 95% CI = 0.754-0.927, cut-off value = 1.59 mm(2)) and non-diabetic subjects (AUC = 0.833, 95% CI = 0.734-0.932, cut-off value = 1.64 mm(2)).
Conclusion: In both, diabetic and non-diabetic patients, FFR and OCT-derived intraluminal measurements are significantly correlated and OCT predicts hemodynamically relevant coronary stenosis with moderate diagnostic efficiency.