Aims: Bivalirudin has emerged as a meaningful alternative to heparin in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). To date, it is unclear whether bivalirudin has advantages in patients undergoing rotational atherectomy (RA).
Methods and results: The current subgroup analysis of the ROTAXUS trial compared patients receiving bivalirudin (n=129) to those receiving unfractionated heparin (UFH) (n=111). Efficacy was assessed by the frequency of periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI) and safety by the frequency of major access-site bleeding (ASB). Baseline characteristics were similar. Periprocedural MI occurred less frequently in the bivalirudin group (22% vs. 37.5%, p=0.02), while ASB did not differ significantly (2.3% vs. 5.5%, p=0.20). This effect was larger in the RA group, where bivalirudin significantly reduced periprocedural MI (15.7% vs. 38.7%, p=0.01) with a trend towards reduced major ASB (2.9% vs. 10.2%, p=0.09). In the control group without RA, bivalirudin was not superior to UFH regarding periprocedural MI (28.6% vs. 36.6%, p=0.42) and major ASB (1.7% vs. 1.7%, p=0.99).
Conclusions: This analysis suggests a differential benefit of bivalirudin in patients treated with RA. Patients receiving bivalirudin during RA showed significantly less periprocedural MI and fewer ASB compared to patients treated with UFH.