Cor Vasa 2018, 60(4):e377-e380 | DOI: 10.1016/j.crvasa.2017.11.004

Impact of radial and femoral access on radiation dose and fluorography time in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Jakub Rychlík^a,*, Ivan Horňáček^b, Miloslav Tejc^b, Erik Petrikovits^b, Zdeněk Klimsa^a

^a Kardiologické oddělení, Nemocnice Jihlava, Jihlava, Česká republika

^b Kardiocentrum Vysočina, Jihlava, Česká republika

Background: Current guidelines favor radial over femoral access in patients with acute coronary syndromes for safety according to the results of recent trials. However, influence of access site on radiation dose and fluorography time is still unclear.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 390 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome in Kardiocentrum Vysočina. We compared the access site with the number of stents implanted, the average fluorography time in minutes, the average radiation dose and mean effective dose that each patient received in Gy/cm2 or mSv respectively.

Results: Use of femoral access resulted in approximately 11% lower radiation dose (p = 0.03). There has been no significant difference between fluorography time and the number of stents implanted in both cohorts.

Conclusion: We found that the radiation dose was lower in femorally accessed group. Although radiation dose is not the main concern in patients with acute coronary syndromes, our results suggest that femoral access can be preferred over radial access in certain situations.

Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; Coronary intervention; Fluorography time; Radiation dose

Received: October 22, 2017; Revised: November 6, 2017; Accepted: November 10, 2017; Published: August 1, 2018  Show citation