Abstract
Background
Long-term prognosis post-acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in secondary care is not well-known. The severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) as a predictor of long-term mortality was evaluated in a community hospital in Brazil.
Objective
We aimed to compare short and long-term prognosis after an ACS event according to severity of obstructive disease in patients attended in a secondary community hospital from prospective CAD cohort in Brazil (the Strategy of Registry of Acute Coronary Syndrome, ERICO study).
Methods
Survival analyses were performed by Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models (hazard ratios (HR) with respective 95% confidence interval (CI) to evaluate cumulative all-cause, CVD and CAD mortality according the coronary artery obstruction: no-obstruction (reference group), 1-vessel-disease, 2-vessel-disease, multivessel-disease) among 800 adults from an ERICO study during a 4-year-follow-up. HR are presented as crude and further adjusted for potential confounders from 180 days to 4-year follow-up after ACS. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
Poorer survival rates were detected among individuals with multivessel-disease (all-cause, CVD and CAD, p-log rank< 0.0001). After multivariate adjustments, multivessel-disease |(HR; 2.33 (CI 95%; 1.10-4.95)) and 1-vessel-disease obstructed (HR; 2.44 (CI 95%; 1.11-5.34)) had the highest risk for all-cause mortality compared to those with no obstruction at 4-year follow-up.
Conclusions
Not only multivessel-disease, but also 1-vessel-disease patients showed a high long-term mortality risk post-ACS. These findings highlight the importance of having a better approach in the treatment and control of cardiovascular risk even in apparently low-risk individuals attended to in secondary care.
Survivorship; Mortality; Acute Coronary Syndrome; Coronary artery disease; Public Hospital; Epidemiology