ArticleClinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society2026
CTO PCI vs. medical therapy in stable CAD: real-world outcomes from a target trial emulation of SCAAR registry data.
Article in Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe prognostic benefit of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for chronic total occlusion (CTO) in stable coronary artery disease (CAD) remains uncertain.
objectivesTo evaluate long-term survival following CTO PCI compared with medical therapy (MT) using target trial emulation and a nationwide real-world registry.
methodsWe included 7813 patients with stable CAD and a documented CTO from the Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty Registry (SCAAR) between 2015 and 2024. CTO PCI was modeled as a time-dependent exposure. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. We used inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), time-dependent Cox regression, and instrumental variable (IV) analysis to adjust for confounding.
resultsOver a median follow-up of 5.08 years, 1253 deaths occurred. While unadjusted survival favored CTO PCI (HR 0.74; 95% CI, 0.64-0.86; p < 0.001), IPTW and IV adjustment showed no significant reduction in mortality compared with MT (IPTW HR 0.94; 95% CI, 0.80-1.10; p = 0.41; IV HR 1.00; 95% CI, 0.71-1.40; p = 0.999). Successful CTO PCI was associated with improved survival (HR 0.74; 95% CI, 0.62-0.87), whereas unsuccessful procedures were not (HR 1.08; 95% CI, 0.79-1.47). Subgroup analyses showed no consistent benefit, although a modest survival advantage was observed in non-diabetic patients.
conclusionsIn this large nationwide study using target trial emulation, CTO PCI was not associated with improved overall survival compared with MT. Only successful procedures conferred a benefit, highlighting the importance of procedural success and patient selection in CTO revascularization strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41553475What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.