Treatment Adherence Rates and Long‐Term Mortality in a Quaternary Multidisciplinary Heart Team: An Observational Cohort

Abstract

Background A multidisciplinary heart team (HT) approach to patients with complex coronary artery disease has a class IB recommendation, yet there are limited data on adherence to HT treatment recommendations and long‐term clinical follow‐up. The objective of this study was to assess adherence rates to HT recommendations and assess long‐term mortality rates among patients with complex CAD. Methods and Results Six hundred eighty‐four sequential HT cases for complex coronary artery disease from January 2015 to May 2017 were reviewed. After excluding cases with significant comorbid valve disease, baseline characteristics were compared based on HT treatment recommendations: optimal medical therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention, and coronary artery bypass grafting. Adherence rates were manually extracted, and 5‐year mortality rates were obtained from the Michigan Death Registry. Seventy‐two percent of 405 included patients were men (mean age 66±11 years), with high rates of medical comorbidities. Estimated surgical risk scores were lowest in the coronary artery bypass grafting group. Optimal medical therapy was recommended in 138 patients (34%), percutaneous coronary intervention in 95 (23%), and coronary artery bypass grafting in 172 (42%). Adherence to HT recommendations across groups was high (96%) and did not differ between treatment groups. Over 5 years of follow‐up, there were 119 deaths, resulting in a cumulative mortality rate of 29%. Conclusions In the largest HT cohort in the United States to date, high rates of adherence to HT recommendations were observed among high‐risk patients with coronary artery disease. High rates of adherence to HT recommendations were observed irrespective of treatment group recommendation, suggesting that HT recommendations were individualized and acceptable to both patients and physicians alike.