Sex-based analysis of outcome in patients with acute myocardial infarction treated predominantly with percutaneous coronary intervention.
BACKGROUND
A higher mortality risk for women with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common finding in studies that compare the postinfarction outcome of women vs men. It is not clear, however, whether sex is an independent predictor of death among patients systematically treated with aggressive reperfusion and medical strategies.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the impact of patient's sex on outcome in a consecutive series of patients with AMI treated with a reperfusion strategy largely based on percutaneous coronary interventions.


METHODS
Inception cohort of 1937 patients (502 women and 1435 men) who were admitted with a diagnosis of AMI to a tertiary referral institution between January 1995 and December 2000.


METHODS
Mortality at 1 year after AMI.


RESULTS
Compared with men, women were older (70 vs 61 years; P<.001) and had known diabetes or hypertension more often. Both men and women received essentially identical therapy with the majority of patients (86%) receiving reperfusion therapy via percutaneous coronary interventions. There were no significant differences in 1-year Kaplan-Meier death rates with 13.8% (68 cases) among women and 12.9% (184 cases) among men (unadjusted hazard ratio, 1.06; 95% confidence interval, 0.80-1.39; P =.70). After age adjustment, women had a lower risk of death (hazard ratio, 0.65; 95% confidence interval, 0.49-0.87; P =.004).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite their more advanced age and greater prevalence of diabetes or hypertension, women with AMI who were treated with a reperfusion strategy largely based on percutaneous coronary interventions show a similar outcome as men.
Mehilli
Julinda
J
Deutsches Herzzentrum, Lazarettstrasse 36, 80636 Munich, Germany.
Kastrati
Adnan
A
Dirschinger
Josef
J
Pache
Jürgen
J
Seyfarth
Melchior
M
Blasini
Rudolf
R
Hall
Donald
D
Neumann
Franz-Josef
FJ
Schömig
Albert
A
D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012306:Risk; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome