Angiographic characteristics of symptomatic recurrent disease after infrainguinal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty

Purpose: To evaluate the angiographic patterns of clinically manifest recurrent disease after infrainguinal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of stenoses and total occlusions. Methods: Among 326 infrainguinal PTAs on 263 consecutive patients, selective angiography was performed on 61 limbs of 52 patients 1–60 months after the primary intervention because of clinically suspected recurrent disease. Lesion-specific and patient-related factors were analyzed for 75 angiographically confirmed recurrent lesions in 57 limbs of 48 patients. Results: Recurrent disease was more frequently a stenosis when the original target lesion was a stenosis (92%, 44/48) than when the original lesion was a total occlusion (59%, 16/27; p < 0.001). When the original target lesion was a stenosis, the total length of the recurrent disease was longer than that of the original lesion [3.9 ± 3.9 cm (mean ± standard deviation) vs 2.8 ± 2.7 cm; p= 0.03], while in the subgroup of original total occlusions the length of the recurrent lesion was shorter than that of the original occlusion (7.1 ± 5.0 cm vs 9.9 ± 6.9 cm; p= 0.02). Half the restenoses (22/44) extended beyond one or both ends of the original stenosis and 38% (6/16) of the reocclusions extended beyond the distal end of the original occlusion. Conclusions: The type of recurrent disease depends on the original lesion type and the restenotic lesion frequently extends beyond one or both ends of the original target lesion.