Clinical profile and outcomes of primary percutaneous coronary intervention in young patients

Background

The epidemiology of acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation (STEMI) has been modified in recent years, focusing on young people. Our goal was compare the clinical profile, laboratory, angiographic, and 30-day clinical outcomes of patients ≤ 40 years with those > 40 years undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI).

Methods

Prospective cohort study of consecutive patients undergoing pPCI between 2009 and 2011.

Results

A total of 1,055 patients were included, 3.3% of them ≤ 40 years. Young patients were more often black, smokers and with a family history of coronary artery disease, and less often hypertensive and dyslipidemic. In patients ≤ 40 years, leukocyte count and ultrasensitive troponin levels at admission were higher, and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, lower. The left anterior descending artery as a culprit vessel and left ventricular ejection fraction did not differ between groups. Although the TIMI 3 flow pre-intervention was similar, young people showed higher prevalence of myocardial blush 3 pre-procedure. The door-to-balloon time was lower in younger patients (1.0 hour [0.8-1.4 hour] vs. 1.3 hour [0.9-1.7 hour]; p = 0.03). At 30 days, patients ≤ 40 years had a mortality of 0% vs. 8.8% for patients > 40 years (p = 0.07).

Conclusions

Patients ≤ 40 years with STEMI and undergoing pPCI show differences in clinical, angiographic and procedural characteristics compared to those > 40 years. In this analysis, representative of the current medical practice, the 30-day mortality of these patients was very low.