The Burden of Short-term Major Adverse Cardiac Events and its Determinants after Emergency Percutaneous Coronary Revascularization: A Prospective Follow-up Study

OBJECTIVES: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains recommended reperfusion therapy for patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and their determinants among patients who underwent primary PCI at a tertiary care cardiac center of Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS: A cohort of patients who underwent primary PCI were followed for the MACE. Multivariable Cox-regression analysis was performed with backward conditional variable selection and hazard ratio (HR) along with 95% confidence interval (CI) were obtained. RESULTS: A total of 1150 patients were included, of which follow-up was successful in 95.8% (1102) and median follow-up duration was 6.1 [6.9–5.1] months. MACE were observed in 210 (19.1%) patients with 14.2% (157) all-cause mortality, 5.4% (60) cardiac mortality, 0.7% (8) stroke, 3.6% (40) re-hospitalization due to heart failure, and 6.1% (67) myocardial infarction requiring revascularization. Independent predictors of short-term MACE were found to be admission glucose ≥200 mg/dL (1.66 [1.25–2.21]), serum creatinine ≥1.5 mg/dL (1.52 [1.02–2.27]), intubation (2.81 [1.98–4.00]), history of PCI (2.06 [1.45–2.93]), history of cerebrovascular accident (2.64 [1.34–5.2]), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure ≥20 mmHg (1.81 [1.3–2.51]), triple vessel diseases (1.43 [1.08–1.9]), culprit left main or proximal left anterior descending artery (1.77 [1.32–2.35]), pre-ballooning (2.14 [1.2–3.82]), and thrombus grade ≥4 (2.21 [1.51–3.24]). CONCLUSIONS: A significant number of individuals undergone primary PCI are still vulnerable to subsequent short-term MACE, hence, systematic follow-up and early risk stratification should be considered as an integral part of STEMI management protocol specially for patients with high-risk features as highlighted herein.