New data from the American College of Cardiology’s CathPCI Registry reveal a steady but modest decline in contrast volume during percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) between 2018 and 2022. Minimizing contrast is key to lowering post-PCI acute kidney injury (AKI) risk.
Highlights include:
- Average contrast volume dropped from 168.1 mL in 2018 to 71.2 mL in 2022 across 3 million patients at 1,786 U.S. hospitals.
- High-risk patients consistently received less contrast, showing adherence to guidelines.
- Yet, 37.5% of physicians did not significantly reduce contrast use, and 9.2% increased it despite rising patient complexity and procedure difficulty.
Lead author Nobuhiro Ikemura, MD, PhD, stresses the need for novel strategies to further cut contrast volume and improve PCI safety. Suggested approaches include proactive guidance on safe contrast levels and operator-level feedback to optimize individual practice patterns.
Continued innovation and targeted interventions will be essential to advance patient safety in interventional cardiology.
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