Are cerebral ischaemic complications more likely to occur in elderly patients undergoing transradial non‐coronary intervention: A single‐centre retrospective review

Introduction Transradial artery access (TRA) is an established technique employed by interventional cardiologists for diagnostic and therapeutic coronary interventions. The use of TRA has gained increasing traction amongst interventional radiologists in recent years. In transradial, non‐coronary interventions, the aorta has to be traversed. With increasing age, atherosclerotic changes in the aorta posed a theoretical risk of catheter‐related emboli. Currently, there is limited literature available on the cerebral ischaemic complication rates in transradial non‐coronary interventions. Methods Between November 2015 and December 2017, 150 transradial non‐coronary interventions were performed on 95 patients. Intra‐procedural, in‐hospital, 30‐day and 6‐month complications (ischaemic stroke, transient ischaemic attack and death, and minor complications, such as puncture site haematoma, pseudoaneurysm, thrombosis, dissection and perforation) were compared between the two age groups (≤65 and >65 years old). Results The patients were predominantly male (87.0%) with age ≤65 (N = 69; 46.0%) and age >65 (N = 81; 54.0%). There were no ischaemic strokes at all time points in both groups, except for one case of ischaemic stroke at 6 months in the age ≤65 group(1.4% vs. 0.0%; P = 0.462). On multivariable analysis, age >65 was associated with lower in‐hospital death rates (OR 0.251; 95% CI 0.013–3.09), at 30 days (OR 0.608; 95% CI 0.77–4.805) and at 6 months (OR 0.514; 95% CI 0.169–1.558) with no deaths intra‐procedurally in both groups. Minor complications include puncture site grade I haematoma formation (2.9% vs. 2.5%; P = 0.999) and pseudoaneurysm (2.9% vs. 0.0%; P = 0.210). In our study, the overall major and minor complications rates are low and no statistically significant difference exists between the two groups. Conclusion Transradial non‐coronary interventions are safe in elderly patients, who are likely to have more atherosclerotic disease of the aorta. Of note, no complication of ischaemic strokes within 30 days of the procedure is documented in all patients.