BACKGROUND: Prior studies have shown there are differences in the clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between men and women. We tried to assess gender differences in clinical and angiographic presentation as well as in the in-hospital outcomes of patients undergoing contemporary PCI. METHODS: From 2002 to 2009, 6,067 consecutive patients were submitted to PCI, of these, 2,021 (33.3%) were women. The interventional strategy, including the type of stent implanted, was conducted at the operators discretion. RESULTS: The female gender was older and had a greater incidence of risk factors for atherosclerosis, except for smoking. Acute coronary syndrome without ST segment elevation was the most prevalent presentation in women. Women had a higher number of single vessel lesions and a lower prevalence of B2/C lesions, thrombi, bifurcation lesions and moderate to severe ventricular dysfunction. Patients were predominantly treated with bare metal stents and no differences were observed for the diameter and length of the stents. No differences were observed for the in-hospital incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (1.5% vs. 1.4%; P = 0.76), death (0.9% vs. 0.6%; P = 0.15), stroke (0.05% vs. 0.05%; P > 0.99), acute myocardial infarction (0.7% vs. 1.1%; P = 0.16) and emergency myocardial revascularization surgery (0.1% vs. 0; P = 0.62). Diabetes, multivessel coronary artery disease, B2/C type lesions and total occlusions were the variables that best explained the occurrence of in-hospital events. CONCLUSIONS: Women correspond to one third of the patients undergoing PCI at our service and have a more severe clinical profile, but lower anatomic complexity than men. In our study, the female gender was not a predictor of in-hospital adverse clinical events.
Angioplasty; Stents; Women; Coronary disease
