Abstract
Introduction
A relevant proportion of patients experiencing ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has a late presentation after symptoms onset. Temporal trends deriving from a large real-word scenario for this subgroup of patients are lacking.
Purpose
The aim of the present study was to provide a comprehensive analysis of temporal trends in latecomer STEMI patients, with particular regard to implementation of evidence-based treatments in this population and major in-hospital outcomes.
Methods
All STEMI patients included in the AMIS Plus Registry from January 1997 to December 2017 were included and patient-related delay was assessed: 27 231 patients were available for the final analysis. STEMI patients were classified as early or latecomers according to patient-related delay (≤ or >12 hours, respectively).
Results
22 928 patients were earlycomers (84%) and 4303 patients were classified as latecomers (16%). Across the study period we observed a significant decrease in prevalence of late presentation from 22% to 12.3% (p<0.001, Figure 1). In latecomer STEMI patients there was a gradual uptake of evidence-based pharmacological treatments with an increase in discharge prescription of P2Y12 inhibitors from 6% to 90.7% (p<0.001). Similarly, a marked increase in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) rate was observed (12.1–86.6%; p<0.001). Across this 20-year period, in-hospital mortality was reduced to a third (to an absolute rate of 4.5%, p<0.001) and a significant reduction in prevalence of both cardiogenic shock (14.6–4.3%) and re-infarction (5.4–0.2%) during the index hospitalisation was observed (p<0.001 for both variables). Length of hospitalisation in acute care facilities significantly decreased from 10 (6,14) days to 4 (1,7) days (p<0.001). At multivariate analysis, PCI had a strong independent protective effect toward in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 0.3, 95% confidence interval 0.187 to 0.480).
Figure 1
Conclusion
The present study provides a comprehensive picture of temporal trends in late presentation in STEMI over the last 20 years in Switzerland. During the study period in latecomer STEMI population there was a gradual uptake of evidence-based pharmacological treatments and a marked increase in PCI rate. In-hospital mortality was reduced to a third (to an absolute rate of 4.5%) and this reduction seems to be mainly associated with the increasing implementation of PCI.