Anatomical SYNTAX Score - a tool for coronary artery disease severity assessment and predicting endovascular treatment outcomes
The main options for invasive treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) are coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous coronary interventions. The most severe category are patients with multiple coronary artery lesions. In such cases, a quantitative assessment of CAD severity allows to select comparable groups of patients when choosing a method of myocardial revascularization, to accomplish comparative randomized trials, registries and meta-analyzes. Detailed assessment of the coronary anatomy is a promising model for predicting the results of invasive treatment of CAD contributing to a more balanced decision making. Presently, the most common prognostic model tested in many randomized controlled studies, large registers and meta-analyzes is the SYNTAX Score. The search was performed in the PubMed database and the Scientific Electronic Library with the keyword “SYNTAX Score”. Total of 1,522 matched records were found. Most relevant sources for topic of this paper were selected. Cross-references between databases, reprints, review articles, materials representing comments and discussions of existing publications, studies of similar design and smaller sample size than other published papers, early publications of studies with a shorter observation period were excluded. Priority was given to multicenter randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyzes of RCTs. The data of 57 original articles, 3 conference proceedings and 4 guideline documents were summarized. This paper presents main stages of development and characteristics of this risk assessment model, supplemented by a literature review reflecting the prognostic significance and advanced possibilities of the SYNTAX Score in research and clinical practice.