Use of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Among Black and White Patients With End‐Stage Renal Disease in the United States

BACKGROUND: Racial disparities in invasive cardiac procedures such as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the general population are well documented; however, national‐level data on such disparities in the end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) population are lacking. We assessed racial differences in PCI between black and white patients with ESRD on maintenance dialysis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the US Renal Data System database, we abstracted Medicare inpatient procedure claims for PCI in a cohort of 268 575 Medicare‐primary patients who initiated treatment on maintenance dialysis from January 1, 2009, through June 1, 2013. We conducted Cox regression analyses with PCI being the event, adjusted for demographic characteristics, Hispanic ethnicity, cause of ESRD, comorbidities, and socioeconomic factors. We also assessed the probability of PCI, accounting for death or transplant in competing risk regression models. The crude incidence rate of PCI among white patients was 25.8 per 1000 patient‐years versus 15.5 per 1000 patient‐years among black patients. Cox regression analyses demonstrated that black patients were significantly less likely to undergo PCI compared with white patients (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.64; 95% CI, 0.62–0.67; P<0.001). In the competing risk models, the racial gap for PCI among black and white patients remained significant with death (subdistribution hazard ratio: 0.81; 95% CI, 0.76–0.85; P<0.001) or transplant as a competing event (subdistribution hazard ratio: 0.67; 95% CI, 0.64–0.70; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A racial gap exists in PCI use among dialysis patients despite having comprehensive coverage with Medicare. These findings persisted despite accounting for demographic, clinical, socioeconomic factors, and death or transplant as competing events.