Changing outcome of angioplasty in the elderly

Objectives. This study sought to determine whether in-hospital and intermediate-term posthospital outcomes have changed in elderly patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty from the period 1980 through 1989 to the period 1990 through 1992. Background. Although elderly patients have higher incidence of procedure-related deaths and late recurrence of angin after coronary angioplasty, recent complication rates for angioplasty seem to be lower. Methods. From 1980 to 1989, 982 patients ≥65 years old underwent nonemergent coronary angioplasty (group A). They were compared with 768 similar patients who had coronary angioplasty from 1990 to 1992 (group B). Results. Patients in group B were older than those in group and had higher mean concomitant disease score, higher proportion of men and greater proportion of patients with previous myocardial infarction and previous coronary artery bypass surgery. Despite the increased complexity of the group B cohort, procedural success rates were higher, and rates of important in-hospital complications were much lower than those in group A. For group versus group B, respectively, the technical success rate was 88.1% versus 93.5% (p < 0.001), in-hospital death rate 3.3% versus 1.4% (p = 0.014), emergency bypass surgery rate 5.5% versus 0.65% (p < 0.001) and incidence of in-hospital death or myocardial infarction 6.3% versus 3.4% (p < 0.005). However, intermediate-term posthospital event-free rates in hospital survivors did not decrease. The rate of death or myocardial infarction at 6 months was 4.7% in group versus 7.1% in group B (p < 0.05). Survival free of acute myocardial infarction, bypass surgery, repeat coronary angioplasty or severe angin at 1 year was 66.7% in group versus 54.9% in group B (p < 0.001). The combined in-hospital death/myocardial infarction rate plus that for the first 6 months after hospital dismissal was essentially equivalent for the two groups (10.3% vs. 9.9%, p = NS). Conclusions. An increase in technical success rates and reduction in short-term complication rates for coronary angioplasty in the elderly in recent years have not translated into an improved event-free survival rate, which continues to be influenced by important baseline characteristics of these high risk patients.