Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, announced late-breaking results from the iMODERN trial (Instantaneous wave-free Ratio Guided Multivessel Revascularisation During PCI for Acute Myocardial Infarction) at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2025 conference, the world’s leading meeting for interventional cardiology. The study compared immediate versus delayed treatment of additional narrowed arteries in heart attack patients to determine whether treating all blockages in one procedure is as safe and effective as waiting for a follow-up procedure. The study compared immediate versus deferred treatment of additional narrowed arteries in heart attack patients to determine whether treating all blockages in a single procedure is superior to waiting for a follow-up procedure – a key question, since many patients have multiple diseased arteries and the optimal timing for complete treatment remains uncertain.
In today’s practice, when patients suffer a serious type of heart attack (STEMI), cardiologists urgently open the blocked artery causing the attack. But many of these patients also have disease in other arteries. Often these additional narrowed arteries are not treated right away, either due to time restraints, patient stability, resource constraints or because they stay unnoticed. They may be treated later in a separate hospital stay or not at all, leaving uncertainty about the best timing and approach.
The new findings show that patients can safely have additional arteries treated immediately during the first procedure to treat the acute event, rather than during a later second intervention. By confirming the safety of extending Class I, Level A-recommended iFR to non-stable patients, the results offer physicians the opportunity to complete treatment in one session, without compromising long-term outcomes. The iMODERN trial is the largest study to date testing iFR* in the acute heart attack setting, expanding the evidence base for a tool already strongly recommended (Class I, Level A) in stable patients.
