Should Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction be Treated like ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction With Shorter Door-to-Balloon Time?

Early coronary angiography in NSTEMI: a regional Victorian perspective

BACKGROUND

Current guidelines highlight a paucity of evidence guiding optimal timing for non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) in high-risk and non-high-risk cases.

AIM

We assessed long-term major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in NSTEMI patients undergoing early (<24 h) versus delayed (>24 h) coronary angiography at 6 years. Secondary end-points included all-cause mortality and cumulative MACE outcomes.

METHODS

Baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes were assessed among 355 patients presenting to a tertiary regional hospital between 2017 and 2018. Cox proportional hazard models were generated for MACE and all-cause mortality outcomes, adjusting for the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score, patient demographics, biomarkers and comorbidities.

RESULTS

Two hundred and seventy patients were included; 147 (54.4%) and 123 (45.6%) underwent early and delayed coronary angiography respectively. Median time to coronary angiography was 13.3 and 45.4 h respectively. At 6 years, 103 patients (38.1%) experienced MACE; 41 in the early group and 62 in the delayed group (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.23; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.50-3.31). After multivariable adjustment, the delayed group had higher rates of MACE (HR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.19-2.70), all-cause mortality (HR = 2.76; 95% CI = 1.36-5.63) and cumulative MACE (incidence rate ratio = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.12-2.11). Subgroup analysis of MACE outcomes in rural and weekend NSTEMI presentations was not significant between early and delayed coronary angiography (HR = 1.49; 95% CI = 0.83-2.62).

CONCLUSION

Higher MACE rates in the delayed intervention group suggest further investigation is needed. Randomised control trials would be well suited to assess the role of early invasive intervention across all NSTEMI risk groups.

An Updated Review on Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibitors as Antiplatelet Agents: Basic and Clinical Perspectives

The glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor is found integrin present in platelet aggregations. GP IIb/IIIa antagonists interfere with platelet cross-linking and platelet-derived thrombus formation through the competition with fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor. Currently, three parenteral GP IIb/IIIa competitors (tirofiban, eptifibatide, and abciximab) are approved for clinical use in patients affected by percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in the location of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). GP IIb/IIIa antagonists have their mechanism of action in platelet aggregation prevention, distal thromboembolism, and thrombus formation, whereas the initial platelet binding to damage vascular areas is preserved. This work is aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the significance of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors as a sort of antiplatelet agent. Their mechanism of action is based on factors that affect their efficacy. On the other hand, drugs that inhibit GP IIb/IIIa already approved by the FDA were reviewed in detail. Results from major clinical trials and regulatory practices and guidelines to deal with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors were deeply investigated. The cardiovascular pathology and neuro-interventional surgical application of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors as a class of antiplatelet agents were developed in detail. The therapeutic risk/benefit balance of currently available GP IIb/IIa receptor antagonists is not yet well elucidated in patients with ACS who are not clinically evaluated regularly for early cardiovascular revascularization. On the other hand, in patients who have benefited from PCI, the antiplatelet therapy intensification by the addition of a GP IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist (intravenously) may be an appropriate therapeutic strategy in reducing the occurrence of risks of thrombotic complications related to the intervention. Development of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors with oral administration has the potential to include short-term antiplatelet benefits compared with intravenous GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors for long-term secondary preventive therapy in cardiovascular disease. But studies showed that long-term oral administration of GP IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors has been ineffective in preventing ischemic events. Paradoxically, they have been linked to a high risk of side effects by producing prothrombotic and pro-inflammatory events.

The influence of the Ini­tial Severity of Coronary Artery Lesion (by the Syntax Score) on the Midterm Prognosis of Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction Without ST Segment Elevation

Aim      To study the effect of the baseline severity of coronary artery damage according to the SYNTAX scale (baseline score of coronary lesions, BSCL) on the mid-term prognosis in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (NSTEMI), and to identify the threshold BSCL value that determines high and low risks of adverse cardiac outcomes.

Material and methods  A retrospective analysis was performed for the hospital treatment of patients with NSTEMI (n=421) who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). 256 patients with a repeated hospitalization in mid-term (11.6±3.2 months) were selected for the study. These patients were followed up for the incidence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), unscheduled repeated myocardial revascularization (URR), and of the composite endpoint (CEP) that included at least one the following events: death, recurrent AMI, unstable angina (UA), and URR. The effect of BSCL on the incidence of these events in mid-term was proven (р<0.05), and then the BSCL threshold value was determined, which allowed segregation of patients into groups of high and low risk of adverse cardiac outcomes.

Results The threshold BSCL value for the risk of ACS was determined as score 14 (odds ratio, OR, 2.79; 95 % confidence interval, CI: 1.32–5.89); for URR and CEP, score 13 (OR, 2.21; 95 % CI: 1.22–4.01 and OR, 2.38; 95 % CI: 1.32–4.31, respectively). Since these threshold values were comparable, for the composite category of events (CEP), the BSCL threshold comprised score 13, and namely this value was taken as a base. According to the multifactorial Cox regression at BSCL score ≥13, the probability of earlier CEP in mid-term was 2.44 times higher than at lower BSCL values (OR, 2.44; 95 % CI: 1.41–4.21; р=0.001). Furthermore, according to the Kaplan-Meier estimate, the effect of BSCL on the survival without adverse cardiac outcomes becomes significant starting from the second half-year (р=0.001, log-rank test).

Conclusion      In NSTEMI patients, the SYNTAX baseline score of coronary lesions >13 is an independent predictor of adverse cardiac outcomes in mid-term starting from the second half-year. Thus, patients with BSCL ≥13 should undergo a follow-up examination no later than at 6 months independent on their clinical condition.

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Comparison of GRACE and TIMI risk scores in the prediction of in-hospital and long-term outcomes among East Asian non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients

Background

Risk stratification in non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) determines the intervention time. Limited study compared two risk scores, the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) and Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk scores in the current East Asian NSTEMI patients.

Methods

This retrospective observational study consecutively collected patients in a large academic hospital between 01/01 and 11/01/2017 and followed for 4 years. Patients were scored by TIMI and GRACE scores on hospital admission. In-hospital endpoints were defined as the in-hospital composite event, including mortality, re-infarction, heart failure, stroke, cardiac shock, or resuscitation. Long-term outcomes were all-cause mortality and cardiac mortality in 4-year follow-up.

Results

A total of 232 patients were included (female 29.7%, median age 67 years), with a median follow-up of 3.7 years. GRACE score grouped most patients (45.7%) into high risk, while TIMI grouped the majority (61.2%) into medium risk. Further subgrouping the TIMI medium group showed that half (53.5%) of the TIMI medium risk population was GRACE high risk (≥ 140). Compared to TIMI medium group + GRACE < 140 subgroup, the TIMI medium + GRACE high-risk (≥ 140) subgroup had a significantly higher in-hospital events (39.5% vs. 9.1%, p < 0.05), long-term all-cause mortality (22.2% vs. 0% p < 0.001) and cardiac death (11.1% vs. 0% p = 0.045) in 4-year follow-up. GRACE risk scores showed a better predictive ability than TIMI risk scores both for in-hospital and long-term outcomes. (AUC of GRACE vs. TIMI, In-hospital: 0.82 vs. 0.62; long-term mortality: 0.89 vs. 0.68; long-term cardiac mortality: 0.91 vs. 0.67, all p < 0.05). Combined use of the two risk scores reserved both the convenience of scoring and the predictive accuracy.

Conclusion

GRACE showed better predictive accuracy than TIMI in East Asian NSTEMI patients in both in-hospital and long-term outcomes. The sequential use of TIMI and GRACE scores provide an easy and promising discriminative tool in predicting outcomes in NSTEMI East Asian patients.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-021-02311-z.

Admissions Rate and Timing of Revascularization in the United States in Patients With Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Clinical trials have shown improved outcomes with an early invasive approach for non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). However, real-world data on clinical characteristics and outcomes based on time to revascularization are lacking. We aimed to analyze NSTEMI rates, revascularization timing, and mortality using the 2016 Nationwide Readmissions Database. We identify patients who underwent diagnostic angiography and subsequently received either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Finally, revascularization timing and mortality rates (in-hospital and 30-day) were extracted. Our analysis included 748,463 weighted NSTEMI hospitalizations in 2016. Of these hospitalizations, 50.3% (376,695) involved diagnostic angiography, with 34.1% (255,199) revascularized. Of revascularized patients, 77.6% (197,945) underwent PCI and 22.4% (57,254) underwent CABG. Patients with more comorbidities tended to have more delayed revascularization. PCI was most commonly performed on the day of admission (32.9%; 65,155). This differs from CABG, which was most commonly performed on day 3 after admission (13.7%; 7,823). The in-hospital mortality rate increased after day 1 for PCI patients and after day 4 for CABG patients, whereas 30-day in-hospital mortality for both populations increased as revascularization was delayed. Our study shows that patients undergoing early revascularization differ from those undergoing later revascularization. Mortality is generally high with delayed revascularization, as these are sicker patients. Randomized clinical trials are needed to evaluate whether very early revascularization (<90 minutes) is associated with improved long-term outcomes in high-risk patients.