IMPACT OF DIFFERENT PATENCY CRITERIA ON LONG-TERM RESULTS OF FEMOROPOPLITEAL ANGIOPLASTY - ANALYSIS OF 106 CONSECUTIVE PATIENTS WITH CLAUDICATION

PURPOSE: To assess the impact of different patency criteria on long-term results after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of femoropopliteal arteries. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The results of femoropopliteal PTA in 106 consecutive patients with claudication (140 treated limbs) were analyzed. The treated artery segment was considered patent if (a) the ankle-brachial index (ABI) had increased by more than 0.10 initially and not deteriorated by more than 0.15 from the maximum early postprocedural level and (b) the ABI was consistently at least 0.15 above the preprocedural level, The third criteria was based on patients' subjective assessment of patency, Initial failures were either included or excluded and both primary (the outcome of the original PTA) and secondary patency (also repeated PTAs included) were determined. RESULTS: When the different criteria were applied, the patency rates at 3 years ranged from 42% to 82% in this patient population. CONCLUSION: These results stress the importance of uniform criteria when results of different kind of vascular interventions are reported.