Long-term Safety and Efficacy of Angioplasty of Femoropopliteal Artery Disease with Drug-coated Balloons from the AcoArt I Trial

Objective: We evaluated the long-term safety and efficacy of treatment using drug-coated balloons (DCBs) in Chinese patients with severe femoropopliteal artery (FPA) disease (FPAD).

Methods: In this prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial, 200 Chinese patients with FPAD were prospectively randomized to undergo percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with a DCB or an uncoated balloon (UCB). The clinical endpoints were all-cause mortality, clinically driven target lesion revascularization, and major amputation of the treated leg within 5 years after treatment.

Results: During the 5-year follow-up period, freedom from all-cause mortality was 82.7% in the DCB group compared with 73.2% in the UCB group (log-rank P = .262). Freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization was 77.5% in the DCB group vs 59.1% in the UCB group (log-rank P < .001). No device- or procedure-related deaths occurred in either group. Cox regression analysis revealed that coronary heart disease and provisional FPA lesion stenting were associated with an increased mortality risk and the nominal paclitaxel dose was not associated with mortality during the 5-year follow-up period.

Conclusions: We found no significant differences in 5-year mortality between patients with FPAD treated with DCBs vs UCBs. The clinical benefit of DCBs vs UCBs in terms of clinically driven target lesion revascularization persisted for the 5-year period.