Invasive Management Shows No QoL Benefit in Patients with Poorer Kidney Function

Sripal Bangalore, MD

Quality of life outcomes may have better odds of improvement following invasive management in patients with less advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to new findings.

Among the study population with chronic coronary disease (CCD), the event rates were inversely proportional to kidney function.

“Invasive management was associated with an increase in stroke and procedural myocardial infarction and a reduced risk in spontaneous myocardial infarction, and the effect was similar across CKD stages with no difference in other outcomes, including death,” wrote study author Sripal Bangalore, MD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

The investigators noted the guideline recommendations on the treatment of patients with CCD are therefore not predicated according to underlying kidney function or CKD stage. Thus, they aimed to evaluate clinical and quality of life outcomes across the spectrum of CKD following conservative and invasive treatment strategies.

Participants with moderate or severe ischemia on stress testing, with and without advanced CKD, were randomized in the ISCHEMIA-CKD and ISCHEMIA trials, respectively. They were categorized based on baseline kidney function into CKD

• stage 1 (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] 90 mL/min/1.73m2 or greater)
• stage 2 (eGFR 60 - 89 mL/min/1.73m2)
• stage 3 (eGFR 30-59 mL/min/1.73m2)
• stage 4 (eGFR 15-29 mL/min/1.73m2)
• stage 5 (eGFR less than 15 mL/min/1.73m2 or receiving dialysis)

The initial invasive management of coronary angiography and revascularization with guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) was compared to the initial conservative management of GDMT alone. Enrollment occurred between July 2021 and January 2018.

The primary clinical outcome was considered the composite of death or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), while the primary quality of life outcome was the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) summary score.

A total of 5956 participants were included in the analysis (mean age, 64 years; 1410 [24%] female and 4546 [76%] male). From the total population, 1889 (32%) were in CKD stage 1, 2551 (43%) in stage 2, 738 (12%) in stage 3, 311 (5%) in stage 4, and 467 (8%) were in stage 5.

The self-report of demographics saw 18 participants (<1%) were American Indian or Alaska Native, 1676 (29%) were Asian, 267 (5%) were Black, 861 (16%) were Hispanic or Latino, 18 (<1%) were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 3884 (66%) were White. A total of 13 participants (<1%) were multiple races or ethnicities.

Investigators observed an increase in the risk of primary endpoint (3-year rates, 9.52%, 10.72%, 18.42%, 34.21%, and 38.01%, respectively), death, cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke in individuals with higher CKD stages).

Moreover, they found invasive management was associated with an increase in stroke (3-year event rate difference, 1%; 95% CI, 0.3 to 1.7) and procedural MI (1.6%; 95% CI, 0.9 - 2.3), with a decrease in spontaneous myocardial infarction (-2.5%; 95% CI, -3.9 to -1.1). This was noted to be similar across CKD stages.

Heterogeneity of treatment effect for quality of life outcomes was observed. Invasive management improved angina-related quality of life in patients with CKD stages 1 to 3 and not in those with CKD stages 4 to 5.

The study, “Clinical and Quality-of-Life Outcomes Following Invasive vs Conservative Treatment of Patients with Chronic Coronary Disease Across the Spectrum of Kidney Function,” was published in JAMA Cardiology.