The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) has just released a focused update to its 2014 consensus statement on the use of invasive assessments of coronary physiology and structure, including the introduction of iFR.

SCAI’s updated consensus statement was published this month in Catherization and Cardiovascular Interventions. Based on the data from the DEFINE-FLAIR and iFR Swedeheart trials showing that the technique is noninferior to FFR for guiding decisions about intervening on intermediate lesions in patients with stable angina or NSTE ACS, SCAI included iFR alongside FFR in several recommendations:

• Both iFR and FFR are deemed “definitely beneficial” for assessing the functional significance of intermediate coronary stenoses when noninvasive stress imaging isn’t available or doesn’t provide a definitive answer.
• SCAI sees probable benefits when FFR or iFR are used to reclassify the number of vessels that are diseased in patients with multivessel disease.
• The authors also spend some time covering the utility of iFR and/or FFR in stable ischemic heart disease, multivessel CAD, left main coronary stenosis, ACS, STEMI, aortic stenosis, tandem and serial lesions, and bypass grafts.