Anemia is a novel predictor for clinical ISR following PCI

BACKGROUND: Conflicting data were found regarding the anemia’s effect on percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) outcomes. We directed our study to investigate anemia’s effect on clinical in-stent restenosis (ISR) following PCI. RESULTS: A prospective multi-center cohort study was performed on 470 consecutive participants undergoing elective PCI. We classified the participants into two groups: group 1 who were anemic and group 2 who were non-anemic as a control group. At 1, 3, 6, and 12 months by clinic visits, we followed up with the patients to assess anemia’s clinical ISR effect. We found that 20% of the patients undergoing PCI had anemia. Anemic patients showed a statistically significant higher rate of impaired renal function and diabetes and a higher percentage of the female gender. Multivariate regression analysis for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) after adjusting for confounding factors revealed that anemia represents a more risk on MACE (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) was 4.13; 95% CI 2.35–7.94; p value < 0.001) and carries a higher risk upon clinical ISR (adjusted HR was 3.51; 95% CI 1.88–7.16; p value < 0.001) over 12 months of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Anemic patients going through PCI are generally females, diabetics, and have renal impairment. Anemia might be considered another indicator for clinical ISR and is fundamentally associated with an increased MACE incidence.