Outcomes of women and men with acute coronary syndrome treated with and without percutaneous coronary revascularization

Background — Women hospitalized with a non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS) have worse clinical outcomes compared with men. An early invasive strategy with prompt coronary revascularization may mitigate sex differences in outcomes. However, few contemporary studies have evaluated whether clinical outcomes differ between women and men presenting with ACS treated with an early invasive strategy.

Methods and Results — A population-based cohort of hospitalized ACS patients who received prompt cardiac catheterization from 2008 to 2011 in Ontario, Canada and followed for up to 2 years was studied. Clinical outcomes were compared between men and women, stratified by the use of coronary revascularization. Inverse probability weighting using the propensity score accounted for measured differences in baseline characteristics between men and women. Among the 23 473 ACS patients who received cardiac catheterization during an index hospitalization, 66.1% of men and 51.8% of women received coronary revascularization during the same hospitalization. In the propensity-weighted cohort of patients who received coronary revascularization, the 1-year rate of death or recurrent ACS was 10.6% for men (referent) compared with 13.1% for women (hazard ratio 1.24; 95% CI 1.16-1.33). In contrast, outcomes for patients who did not receive coronary revascularization did not differ significantly between women and men at 1 year (17.8% versus 16.9%; hazard ratio 1.06; 95% CI 0.99-1.14) or at longer follow-up.

Conclusions — An increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes was observed for women with ACS undergoing an early invasive strategy and coronary revascularization compared with men.