Culprit Lesion Detection in Patients Presenting With Non-ST Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome and Multivessel Disease

Background/purpose: Identification of the culprit lesion in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) allows appropriate coronary revascularization but may be unclear in patients with multivessel coronary disease (MVD). Therefore, we investigated the rate of culprit lesion identification during coronary angiography in NSTE-ACS and multivessel disease.

Methods/materials: Consecutive patients presenting with NSTE-ACS and MVD, between January 2012 and December 2016 were evaluated. Coronary angiograms, intravascular imaging, and ECGs were analyzed for culprit lesion identification. Long-term clinical outcomes in terms of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and mortality were reported in patients with or without culprit identification.

Results: A total of 1107 patients with NSTE-ACS and MVD were included in the analysis, 310 (28.0%) with unstable angina and 797 (72.0%) with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. The culprit lesion was angiographically identified in 952 (86.0%) patients, while no clear culprit lesion was found in 155 (14.0%) patients. ECG analysis allowed to predict the location of the culprit vessel with low sensitivity (range 28.4%-36.7%) and high specificity (range 90.6%-96.5%). Higher lesion complexity was associated with inability to identify the culprit. Intravascular imaging was applied in 55 patients and helped to identify the culprit lesion in 53 patients (96.4%). There was no difference in all-cause mortality (21.4% vs. 25.8%, p = 0.24) and MACE (39.2% vs. 47.6%, p = 0.07) between the cohorts with or without culprit lesion identification by angiography.

Conclusions: The culprit lesion appeared unclear by coronary angiography in >10% of patients with NSTE-ACS and MVD. Complementary invasive imaging substantially enhanced the diagnostic accuracy of culprit lesion detection.