THURSDAY, Dec. 18, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), coronary computed tomography angiography fractional flow reserve (FFR-CT) is prognostic for adverse outcomes, according to a study presented at the annual congress of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, held from Dec. 11 to 13 in Vienna.
Jack S. Bell, M.B.B.S., from the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the association between FFR-CT measurements and future cardiovascular (CV) events in a nationwide cohort of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with three-year follow-up. Patients received CCTA and FFR-CT analysis for stable CAD between 2017 and 2020 at 27 sites. FFR-CT measurements were classified into normal, borderline, reduced, and severely reduced.
A total of 7,836 patients underwent FFR-CT analysis. At three years, 2.4 percent had myocardial infarction (MI), 0.9 percent had CV deaths, 3.3 percent had all-cause death, and 20.1 percent had revascularizations. The researchers observed a significant association for stenosis-specific FFR-CT with future MI, CV death, all-cause death, and revascularization (hazard ratios, 2.08 to 5.73, 1.51 to 3.40, 1.01 to 1.58, and 4.79 to 24.48, respectively). All FFR-CT subgroups remained significantly associated with MI and revascularization after controlling for known CV risk factors (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.73 to 3.88 and 4.39 to 19.03, respectively), while only severely reduced FFR-CT was associated with all-cause death. Outcomes were also predicted by distal vessel FFR-CT, with performance similar to stenosis-specific FFR-CT.
"Adding to its diagnostic abilities, this study is the first to provide conclusive evidence of FFR-CT's prognostic power, independent of other risk factors," senior author Timothy A. Fairbairn, M.B.Ch.B., Ph.D., also from the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, said in a statement.