The CHA2DS2-VASc Risk Score Predicts Total Occlusion in Infarct-Related Arteries in Patients With Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

Early detection of total coronary artery occlusion (TO) in non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients may be beneficial since invasive treatments are initiated more rapidly in appropriate patients. Previous studies have shown that the CHA2DS2-VASc (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age ≥75 years, diabetes mellitus, previous stroke, vascular disease, age between 65 and 74 years, female gender) score is associated with thrombus burden in acute coronary syndromes. We investigated the association between the CHA2DS2-VASc risk score and TO in patients with NSTEMI who underwent coronary angiography. TIMI (thrombolysis in myocardial infarction) flow 0 was defined as TO and TIMI flow 1-3 was defined as non-total occlusion (non-TO). The NSTEMI patients (n = 400) included were separated into two groups: those with (n = 138) and without (n = 262) TO. We observed that the CHA2DS2-VASc score was higher in the TO group (3.86 ± 2.32 vs 2.15 ± 1.79, P <.001). The Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score (P = .002) and the CHA2DS2-VASc score (P < .001) were also found to be significant independent predictors for total occlusion in multiple regression analysis. A CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥3 had 68.1% sensitivity and 64.0% specificity (area under the curve (AUC): 0.657, 95% CI: 0.585-0.725, P < .001) for predicting TO. The CHA2DS2-VASc score was an effective tool that predicted TO in patients with NSTEMI.