Gender impact on in-hospital outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a widely performed technique for coronary revascularization. Men and women seem to have different in-hospital outcomes, although results remain unclear. We assessed the gender impact on in-hospital outcomes in men and women undergoing PCI.

Methods: In a single center, from 1998 to 2002, a total of 413 patients who underwent PCI were included in this analysis. From a dedicated database, the presence of risk factors, angiographic characteristics, left ventricular function and in-hospital outcomes were recorded and compared between men (n=244) and women (n=169). For comparison, unpaired t test and chi-square were used for continuous and dichotomous variables respectively. An alpha <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Women were older (65.3+/-10.39 x 60+/-10.68 years, p=0.001), presented better ejection fraction (67.01+/-12.28% x 64.26+/-14.31%, p=0.028) and higher prevalence of stable angina (63.90% x 45.90%, p<0.001) than men. There were no differences related to family history for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes or hyperlipidemia; but there was an observed reduction in tobacco use (17.71% x 32.31%, p<0.001) by women. Similar rates of in-hospital successful procedures (94.3% x 94.90%, p=0.93) and death (0.41%x1.18%, p=0.40) were observed in men and women, respectively. Neither vascular complications nor stroke occurred. There was a higher incidence of urgent surgical myocardial revascularization (1.77%x0%, p=0.036) and a trend in the combined outcome of death/surgical myocardial revascularization (2.69% x 0.41%, p=0.06) in the women's group.

Conclusion: Women present a higher incidence of urgent surgical myocardial revascularization following percutaneous coronary intervention when compared to men.