Still No Mortality Benefit for PCI in Stable Ischemia

The COURAGE trial created quite a stir when published in 2007, revealing that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the treatment of stable ischemic heart disease failed to improve survival or decrease the risk for ischemic events. PCI did, nonetheless, provide some symptomatic benefit during the study's median follow-up of 4.6 years. Now the COURAGE investigators provide ≤15 years of follow-up data.

Extended follow-up data, with a median follow-up of 11.9 years, were available for 1211 of the original group of 2287 patients. In the original follow-up, all-cause mortality did not differ significantly between PCI and medical therapy (25% and 24%, respectively). Now, in the extended follow-up, there also were no significant mortality di…