Comparative validation of three contemporary bleeding risk scores in acute coronary syndromes

Background: Hemorrhagic complications are strongly linked with subsequent adverse outcomes in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Various risk scores (RS) are available to estimate the bleeding risk in these patients. Aims: To compare the predictive accuracy of the three contemporary bleeding RS in ACS. Methods: We studied 4500 consecutive patients with ACS. For each patient, the ACTION, CRUSADE, and Mehran et al bleeding RS were calculated. We assessed their performance either for the prediction of their own major bleeding events or to predict the TIMI serious (major and minor) bleeding episodes in the overall population, in patients with non-ST elevation ACS (NSTEACS) and in those with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow test) and discrimination (c-statistic) for the three RS were computed and compared. We used the concept of net reclassification improvement (NRI) to compare the incremental prognostic value of using a particular RS over the remaining scores in predicting the TIMI serious bleeding. Results: The best predictive accuracy was obtained by the CRUSADE score either for the prediction of its own major bleeding events (c-statistic=0.80, 0.791, and 0.81 for the entire sample, for STEMI, and for NSTEACS patients, respectively) or to predict the TIMI serious bleed occurrence (c-statistic=0.741, 0.738,and 0.745 for the whole population, for STEMI and NSTEACS patients, respectively). The lowest bleeding rates observed in patients classified as low risk corresponded to the CRUSADE RS. All scores performed modestly in patients who did not undergo coronariography (all c-statistic <0.70). The CRUSADE score was significantly superior to the ACTION model in predicting the TIMI serious bleeding occurrence in terms of NRI overall and by ACS subgroups (p<0.05). Overall, the CRUSADE RS exhibited better calibration for predicting the TIMI serious bleeding compared to the ACTION and Mehran et al scores (Hosmer-Lemeshow p-values of 0.26, 0.13, and 0.07, respectively). Conclusion: The CRUSADE score represents, among the more contemporary bleeding RS, the most accurate and reliable quantitative clinical tool in STEACS and STEMI patients. We encourage the utilization of the CRUSADE index for bleeding risk stratification purposes in daily clinical practice and in ACS outcome studies. The performance of the three more contemporary bleeding RS is modest in those patients who received conservative management

Benefício a longo prazo do tratamento com inibidores da enzima de conversão da angiotensina ou antagonistas do recetor da angiotensina, após intervenção coronária percutânea bem-sucedida, no enfarte agudo do miocárdio sem elevação do segmento ST

Introduction and objectives Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) have been shown to reduce mortality after myocardial infarction (MI). Current guidelines recommend their prescription in all patients after MI. Limited data are available on whether ACEIs/ARBs still improve prognosis in the contemporary era of non-ST elevation MI (NSTEMI) management. We aimed to evaluate the mortality benefit of ACEIs/ARBs in NSTEMI patients treated successfully with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods We analyzed 2784 patients with NSTEMI treated successfully with in-hospital PCI. Two groups were formed based on ACEI/ARB prescription at discharge. Two propensity score (PS) analyses were performed to control for differences in covariates: one with adjustment among the entire cohort, and the other with PS matching (n=1626). The outcome variable was all-cause mortality at four-year follow-up. Results There were 1902 (68.3%) patients prescribed ACEIs/ARBs at discharge. When adjusted by PS, ACEI/ARB use was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) for mortality of 0.75 (0.60-0.94; absolute risk reduction [ARR] 4.0%) in the whole cohort (p=0.01). After one-to-one PS matching (n=813 in each group), the mortality rate was significantly lower in patients prescribed ACEIs/ARBs, with HR of 0.77 (0.63-0.94; ARR 3.8%) (p=0.03). Conclusions In this observational study of patients with NSTEMI, all of them treated successfully by PCI, the use of ACEIs/ARBs was significantly associated with a lower risk of four-year all-cause mortality.Introdução e objetivos Os inibidores da enzima de conversão da angiotensina (IECA) ou os antagonistas do recetor da angiotensina (ARA) mostraram reduzir a mortalidade após enfarte do miocárdio (EM). As guias internacionais atuais recomendam a sua prescrição a todos os doentes após EM. Existem poucos dados disponíveis relativamente a se os IECA/ARA continuam a melhorar o prognóstico na abordagem atual do EM sem elevação do segmento ST (EMSEST). O nosso objetivo foi avaliar o benefício em termos de mortalidade dos IECA ou ARA em doentes com EMSEST, tratados com intervenção coronária percutânea (ICP) com sucesso. Métodos Analisámos 2784 doentes com EMSEST tratados, de forma bem-sucedida, com ICP durante o internamento hospitalar. Foram constituídos dois grupos com base na prescrição de IECA/ARA aquando da alta. Foram efetuadas duas análises de propensity score para controlar diferenças nas co variáveis: uma com ajuste entre toda a coorte e outra com propensity score matching (n=1,626). A variável resultado foi a mortalidade por qualquer causa, após quatro anos de seguimento. Resultados Houve 1902 (68,3%) de doentes com IECA/ARA prescritos aquando da alta. Quando ajustado para o propensity score, o uso de IECA/ARA associou-se a um hazard ratio de 0,75 para mortalidade (0,60-0,94; redução do risco absoluto [RRA] 4,0%) em toda a coorte (p=0,01). Após o one-to-one propensity score matching (n=813 em cada grupo), a taxa de mortalidade foi significativamente menor em doentes sob tratamento com IECA/ARA, com um hazard ratio de 0,77 (0,63-0,94; RRA 3,8%) (p=0,03). Conclusões Neste estudo observacional de doentes com EAMSEST, todos tratados com ICP com sucesso, o uso de IECA/ARA esteve associado a um risco significativamente menor de mortalidade por todas as causas aos quatro anos.S