Coarctation Angioplasty in Young Children: Does IMPACT Registry Data Accurately Reflect Clinical Outcomes?

Balloon angioplasty for recoarctation of the aorta is routinely performed in young children and is considered successful when the systolic gradient is reduced to < 10 mmHg. IMPACT defines acute procedural success solely based on a final gradient of < 10 mmHg and stratifies participating institutions based on these acute outcomes. Between February 2012 and December 2020, IMPACT data was analyzed for 110 coarctation interventions. Electronic medical records were reviewed, and primary endpoints were one of the following: (1) final analysis end date (June 2021), (2) patient death, or (3) most recent transcatheter or surgical reintervention. 64 (58.2%) interventions had a post-procedure CA gradient < 10 mmHg. Comparison of clinical patient outcome for acute success demonstrated no significant relationship using IMPACT (p = 0.70) criteria. There was no statistically significant difference between clinical success and failure for: pre- and post-treatment systolic gradients; absolute or percent change in systolic gradient; and pre-treatment aorta diameter. Clinical outcome and patient age did show a significant difference (p = 0.0093) with better clinical outcomes in older patients. Our analysis did not reveal a statistically significant difference between IMPACT criteria for successful treatment of CA and clinical outcome. These findings underscore a need to identify other clinical metrics that better predict outcome following CA balloon angioplasty treatment.