In-hospital complications after invasive strategy for the management of Non STEMI: women fare as well as men

BACKGROUND: To analyze the in-hospital complication rate in women suffering from non-ST elevation myocardial infarction treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared to men. METHODS: The files of 479 consecutive patients (133 women and 346 men) suffering from a Non STEMI (Non ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction) between the January 1(st )2006 and March 21(st )2009 were retrospectively analyzed with special attention to every single complication occurring during hospital stay. Data were analyzed using nonparametric tests and are reported as median unless otherwise specified. A p value < .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: As compared to men, women were significantly older (75.8 vs. 65.2 years; p < .005). All cardiovascular risk factors but tobacco and hypertension were similar between the groups: men were noticeably more often smoker (p < .0001) and women more hypertensive (p < .005). No difference was noticed for pre-hospital cardiovascular drug treatment. However women were slightly more severe at entry (more Killip class IV; p = .0023; higher GRACE score for in-hospital death - p = .008 and CRUSADE score for bleeding - p < .0001). All the patients underwent PCI of the infarct-related artery after 24 or 48 hrs post admission without sex-related difference either for timing of PCI or primary success rate. During hospitalization, 130 complications were recorded. Though the event rate was slightly higher in women (30% vs. 26% - p = NS), no single event was significantly gender related. The logistic regression identified age and CRP concentration as the only predictive variables in the whole group. After splitting for genders, these parameters were still predictive of events in men. In women however, CRP was the only one with a borderline p value. CONCLUSIONS: Our study does not support any gender difference for in-hospital adverse events in patients treated invasively for an acute coronary syndrome without ST-segment elevation and elevated troponin.