Optimising physiological endpoints of percutaneous coronary intervention

Invasive coronary physiology to select patients for coronary revascularisation has become established in contemporary guidelines for the management of stable coronary artery disease. Compared to revascularisation based on angiography alone, the use of coronary physiology has been shown to improve clinical outcomes and cost efficiency. However, recent data from randomised controlled trials have cast doubt upon the value of ischaemia testing to select patients for revascularisation. Importantly, 20-40% of patients have persistence or recurrence of angina after angiographically successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This state-of-the-art review is focused on the transitioning role of invasive coronary physiology from its use as a dichotomous test for ischaemia with fixed cut-points, towards its utility for real-time guidance of PCI to optimise physiological results. We summarise the contemporary evidence base for ischaemia testing in stable coronary artery disease, examine emerging indices which allow advanced physiological guidance of PCI, and discuss the rationale and evidence base for post-PCI physiological assessments to assess the success of revascularisation.