Wong, Graham C.

Background: Mortality remains high in patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS), and early reperfusion has been shown to improve outcomes. We analyzed the association between first medical contact (FMC)-to-percutaneous coronary angiography time with mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events among patients with STEMI with and without CS. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority STEMI registry, including all patients with STEMI who received primary percutaneous coronary angiography between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2020, and stratified them by presence or absence of CS at hospital arrival. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, the secondary outcome was in-hospital major adverse cardiovascular events, defined as a composite of the first occurrence of mortality, cardiac arrest, heart failure, intracerebral hemorrhage, cerebrovascular accident, or reinfarction. Mixed effects logistic regression with restricted cubic splines was used to estimate the relationships between FMC-to-device time and the outcomes in the CS and non-CS groups. Results: 2929 patients were included, 9.4% (n=275) had CS. Median FMC-to-device time was 113.5 (interquartile range, 93.0–145.0) and 103.0 (interquartile range, 85.0–130.0) minutes for patients with CS and without CS, respectively. More patients with CS had FMC-to-device times above guideline recommendations (76.6% versus 54.1%, P <0.001). Between 60 and 90 minutes, for each 10-minute increase in FMC-to-device time, absolute mortality for patients with CS increased by 4% to 7%, whereas for patients without CS, it increased by <0.5%. Conclusions: Among patients with STEMI undergoing primary percutaneous coronary angiography, reperfusion delays among patients with CS are associated with significantly worse outcomes. Strategies to reduce FMC-to-device times for patients with STEMI presenting with CS are required.

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that coronary intensive care units are evolving into intensive care environments with an increasing burden of non-cardiovascular illness, but previous studies have been limited to older populations or single center experiences. Methods: Canadian national health-care data was used to identify all patients ≥18 years admitted to dedicated coronary intensive care units (2005–2015) and admissions were categorized as primary cardiac or non-cardiac. The outcomes of interest included longitudinal trends in admission diagnoses, critical care therapies, and all-cause in-hospital mortality. Results: Among the 373,992 patients admitted to a coronary intensive care unit, minimal changes in the proportion of patients admitted with a primary cardiac (88.2% to 86.9%; p&lt;0.001) and non-cardiac diagnoses (11.8% to 13.1%; p&lt;0.001) were observed. Among cardiac admissions, a temporal increase in the proportion of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (19.4% to 24.1%, p&lt;0.001), non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (14.6% to 16.2%, p&lt;0.001), heart failure (7.3% to 8.4%, p&lt;0.001), shock (4.9% to 5.7%, p&lt;0.001), and decline in unstable angina (4.9% to 4.0%, p&lt;0.001) and stable coronary diseases (21.3% to 12.4%, p&lt;0.001) was observed. The proportion of patients requiring critical care therapies (57.8% to 63.5%, p&lt;0.001) including mechanical ventilation (9.6% to 13.1%, p&lt;0.001) increased. In-hospital mortality rates for patients with primary cardiac (4.9% to 4.4%; adjusted odds ratio 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.63–0.79) and non-cardiac (17.8% to 16.1%; adjusted odds ratio 0.84, 0.73–0.97) declined; results were consistent when stratified by academic vs community hospital, and by the presence of on-site percutaneous coronary intervention. Conclusion: In a national dataset we observed a changing case-mix among patients admitted to a coronary intensive care unit, though the proportion of patients with a primary cardiac diagnosis remained stable. There was an increase in clinical acuity highlighted by critical care therapies, but in-hospital mortality rates for both primary cardiac and non-cardiac conditions declined across all hospitals. Our findings confirm the changing coronary intensive care unit case-mix and have implications for future coronary intensive care unit training and staffing.