Sex Differences in Outcomes of ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients Submitted to Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Abstract

Background

Several studies have shown that women are usually undertreated and have worse outcomes after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), hence the need to investigate questions related to sex in Brazil to better deal with the problem.

Objective

To determine whether female sex is still associated with adverse events in a contemporary cohort of patients with STEMI undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI).

Methods

This was a prospective cohort study of STEMI patients submitted to pPCI in a tertiary university hospital between March 2011 and December 2021. Patients were categorized into groups based on their sex at birth. The primary clinical outcome was long-term MACCE. Patients were followed-up for up to five years. All hypothesis tests had a two-sided significance level of 0.05.

Results

Among 1457 patients admitted with STEMI in the study period, 1362 were included and 468 (34.4%) were women. Female patients had a higher prevalence of hypertension (73% vs. 60%, p <0.001), diabetes (32% vs. 25%, p=0.003) and Killip class 3-4 at hospital admission (17% vs. 12%, p=0.01); TIMI risk score was higher among women (4 [2, 6] vs. 3 [2, 5], p<0.001). In-hospital mortality was not different between groups (12.8% vs. 10.5%, p=0.20). In-hospital MACCE (16.0% vs. 12.6%, p=0.085) and long-term MACCE (28.7% vs. 24.4%, p=0.089) were numerically higher in women, with borderline significance. After multivariate analysis, female sex was not associated with MACCE (HR = 1.14; 95% CI 0.86 – 1.51; p = 0.36).

Conclusion

In a prospective cohort of STEMI patients submitted to pPCI, female patients were older and had more comorbidities at baseline, but no significant differences were found in terms of long-term adverse outcomes.

ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; sex characteristics; elderly; percutaneous coronary interventions