Five-year follow-up of the medicine, angioplasty, or surgery study (MASS) - A prospective, randomized trial of medical therapy, balloon angioplasty, or bypass surgery for single proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis
Wa. Hueb et al., Five-year follow-up of the medicine, angioplasty, or surgery study (MASS) - A prospective, randomized trial of medical therapy, balloon angioplasty, or bypass surgery for single proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis, CIRCULATION, 100(19), 1999, pp. 107-113
Citations number
29
Categorie Soggetti
Cardiovascular & Respiratory Systems","Cardiovascular & Hematology Research
Background-Although coronary angioplasty and myocardial bypass surgery are
routinely used, there is no conclusive evidence that these interventional m
ethods offer greater benefit than medical therapy alone. This study is inte
nded to evaluate, in a prospective, randomized, and comparative analysis, t
he benefit of the 3 current therapeutic strategies for patients with stable
angina and single proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenos
is.
Methods and Results-In a single institution, 214 patients with stable angin
a, normal ventricular function, and severe proximal stenosis (>80%) on the
left anterior descending artery were selected for the study. After random a
ssignment, 70 patients were referred to surgical treatment, 72 to angioplas
ty, and 72 to medical treatment. The primary end points were the occurrence
of acute myocardial infarction or death and presence of refractory angina.
After a 5-year follow-up, these combined events were reported in only 6 pa
tients referred to surgery as compared with 29 patients treated with angiop
lasty and 17 patients who only received medical treatment (P=0.001). Howeve
r, no differences were noted in relation to the occurrence of cardiac-relat
ed death in the 3 treatment groups (P=0.622). No patient assigned to surger
y needed repeat operation, whereas 8 patients assigned to angioplasty and 8
patients assigned to medical treatment required surgical bypass after the
initial random assignment. Surgery and angioplasty reduced anginal symptoms
and stress-induced ischemia considerably. However, all 3 treatments effect
ively improved limiting angina.
Conclusions-Bypass surgery for single-vessel coronary artery disease is ass
ociated with a lower incidence of medium-term and long-term events as well
as fewer anginal symptoms than that found in the patients who underwent ang
ioplasty or medical therapy. In this study, coronary angioplasty was only s
uperior to medical strategies in relation to the anginal status. However, t
he 3 treatment regimens yielded a similar incidence of acute myocardial inf
arction and death. Such information should be useful when choosing the best
therapeutic option for similar patients.