Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced a new randomized controlled trial to assess patient outcomes after receiving a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) guided by Philips' unique co-registration platform, which combines data of an instant wave-Free Ratio (iFR) measurement and the angiogram (interventional X-ray image), compared with today's standard of care treatment guided by an angiogram alone. PCI is one of the main treatment options to open narrowed coronary arteries of the heart in patients with coronary artery disease.

European and US guidelines already endorse the use of coronary physiologic measurements with iFR and Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) for diagnostic purposes to determine the significance of a narrowed coronary artery. The DEFINE GPS (Distal Evaluation of Functional performance with Intravascular sensors to assess the Narrowing Effect: Guided Physiologic Stenting) study will be the first time that the use of iFR in conjunction with the Philips Image-Guided Co-registration System (SyncVision) is evaluated for PCI guidance and the optimization of treatment outcomes.

PCI is an image-guided, minimally invasive treatment to open a coronary artery blockage (stenosis) that is causing a reduced blood flow (ischemia) to heart tissue. Under the current standard of care, clinicians navigate a balloon catheter and coronary stent to the treatment area using interventional X-ray guidance (coronary angiography). In the study, an iFR pullback measurement, which uses pressure wires to map the pressure profile of the disease distribution along the length of the affected vessel, will be overlaid on the X-ray image to guide treatment. iFR is a next-generation physiologic measurement that uses the same pressure guide wires and equipment as FFR but avoids the administration of hyperemic agents to patients.
"PCI has made a major positive impact on many coronary artery disease patients' lives," said Allen Jeremias, MD of St. Francis Hospital, Roslyn, NY, and Cardiovascular Research Foundation, New York, NY, U.S. and principal investigator of the DEFINE GPS study. "However, when we look back at all the major, high-quality stent trials over the past 20 years we see that around 20-30% of patients continue to have recurring chest pain at one year after receiving treatment. With the DEFINE PCI study we observed that the current approach to PCI has limitations for identifying the locations of physiologically significant arterial lesions. With DEFINE GPS we will be able to determine if a physiology-based PCI approach results in superior patient outcomes when compared with standard angioplasty."

Cardiology Homepage