Coronary venous retroperfusion support during high risk angioplasty in patients with unstable angina: Preliminary experience

Synchronized coronary venous retroperfusion was used during coronary balloon angioplasty to support the ischemic myocardium of 20 patients with unstable angina and anatomy at high risk of a coronary event. Hemodynamics and left ventricular function were the major end points of the study. Coronary venous catheterization and retroperfusion were successfully performed in 15 patients. The target vessel was an unprotected left main artery in 2, left anterior descending artery in 10, left circumflex coronary artery in 1 and right coronary artery in 2 patients. A nonsupported balloon inflation (mean 44 ± 13 s) was compared with a later retroperfusion-supported inflation (mean 145 ± 21 s). Right anterior oblique left ventriculograms, aortic blood pressure, pulmonary artery pressure and thermodilution cardiac output were obtained before and during peak untreated and treated balloon inflations and on completion of angioplasty. All patients had either a baseline left ventricular ejection fraction 40% of contracting myocardium estimated to be at risk for severe ischemia during angioplasty. The cardiac (liters/min per m 2 ) and stroke work (gm/m 2 ) indexes decreased from mean baseline values of 2.5 ± 0.52 and 52 ± 15 to 1.7 ± 0.47 and 27 ± 12 (mean ± SD), respectively, during nonsupported balloon inflations but decreased only to 2.1 ± 0.52 (p All but two patients had a favorable hemodynamic response to retroperfusion. There were no serious adverse effects related to the procedures and no hospital deaths. It is concluded from this preliminary study that coronary venous retroperfusion appears to be safe, to provide hemodynamic support and to improve left ventricular function during angioplasty in patients with unstable angina and anatomy at high risk of a coronary event.