Although the COURAGE trial enrolled patients from 3 distinct North American health care systems, each with different levels of baseline risk, outcomes largely were similar for optimal medical therapy vs. percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) within the patient subgroups. Any discrepancies can be explained by baseline differences known to affect long-term prognosis, asserts a paper published online July 27, 2010, in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Yet Jeffrey W. Moses, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center (New York, NY), described the paper as “defensive.” In a telephone interview with TCTMD, he claimed the analysis demonstrates that the highest risk patients actually appear ....

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