Association of thrombocytopenia and infection in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

BACKGROUND: The impact of thrombocytopenia on infection in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains poorly understood. AIMS: To evaluate the association between thrombocytopenia and infection in patients with STEMI. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with STEMI were identified from January 2010 to June 2016. The primary endpoint was in-hospital infection, and major adverse clinical events (MACE) and all-cause death were considered as secondary endpoints. RESULTS: A total of 1401 STEMI patients were enrolled and divided into two groups according to the presence (n = 186) or absence (n = 1215) of thrombocytopenia. The prevalence of in-hospital infection was significantly higher in the thrombocytopenic group (30.6% (57/186) vs. 16.2% (197/1215), p < 0.001). Prevalence of in-hospital MACE (30.1% (56/186) vs. 16.4% (199/1215), p < 0.001) and all-cause death (8.1% (15/186) vs. 3.8% (46/1215), p = 0.008) revealed an increasing trend. Multivariate analysis indicated that thrombocytopenia was independently associated with increased in-hospital infection (OR, 2.09; 95%CI 1.32–3.27; p = 0.001) and MACE (1.92; 1.27–2.87; p = 0.002), but not all-cause death (1.87; 0.88–3.78; p = 0.091). After a median follow-up of 2.85 years, thrombocytopenia was not associated with all-cause death at multivariable analysis (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.19; 95%CI 0.80–1.77; p = 0.383). CONCLUSIONS: Thrombocytopenia is significantly correlated with in-hospital infection and MACE, and might be used as a prognostic tool in patients with STEMI. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-021-02210-3.