Impact of crossing technique on the incidence of periprocedural myocardial infarction during chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention

Objectives We sought to evaluate the impact of crossing strategy on the incidence of periprocedural myocardial infarction (PMI) during chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Background: The optimal technique for crossing coronary CTOs remains controversial. Methods: We retrospectively examined the incidence of PMI among 184 consecutive patients who underwent CTO PCI at our institution between 2012 and 2015. Creatine kinase‐myocardial band fraction (CK‐MB) and troponin were measured before and after PCI in all patients. PMI was defined as CK‐MB increase ≥3× upper limit of normal (ULN). Results: Mean age was 65 ± 8 years, 98% of patients were men, 57% had diabetes mellitus, 36% were current smokers, 38% had prior heart failure, 31% had prior coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), and 55% had prior PCI. The retrograde approach was used in 38% of cases. As compared with antegrade wire escalation and antegrade dissection/re‐entry, use of the retrograde approach was associated with higher J‐CTO (Multicenter CTO Registry of Japan) scores (P