Risk factors for adverse outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndrome: single-centre experience with long-term follow-up of treated patients.

BACKGROUND

For patients experiencing an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), a crucial time to assess their prognosis and to plan management is at discharge from hospital.

AIM: The aim of the study was to identify risk factors of mortality during post-discharge period following a hospitalisation for ACS.

METHODS

We studied 672 consecutive ACS patients hospitalised and discharged alive between 2002 and 2004. The analysis was done with respect to the type of ACS, i.e. unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infraction (UA/NSTEMI; n = 255) vs. ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; n = 417). All patients underwent coronary angiography and, if indicated, primary angioplasty (STEMI: 417 patients; UA/NSTEMI: 157 patients). The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate the independent effect of the risk factors on the occurrence of primary endpoint, i.e. all-cause mortality during six-year follow-up. Survival status and date of death were obtained from the National Registry of Population (PESEL database).

RESULTS

A total of 123 patients (18.3%) died within the post-discharge period. The multivariate analysis identified 11 highly significant independent predictors of mortality (in order of predictive strength): diabetes mellitus (all types), higher creatinine level, older age, and more frequent occurrence of: supraventricular arrhythmias during hospitalisation, peripheral artery disease, recurrent angina pectoris with documented ischaemia on electrocardiogram, male sex, prior myocardial infarction, treatment with intra-aortic balloon pump counterpulsation, heart failure, and higher peak levels of creatine kinase-MB.

CONCLUSIONS

The risk factors obtained from the medical history and during the hospitalisation improve the risk stratification during the post-discharge period after hospitalisation for ACS.