There is increasing interest in registry data to get a clear picture of contemporary practice in various fields, however many existing registries have significant limitations.¹ The OPEN registry of PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) used a large number of centres (42% of interventional centres in France) and thus is probably truly representative of national practice. In all centres, consecutive patients were taken during a short period of recruitment to ensure they were representative of the treated population. Follow up was 98.8% and the quality of data was validated by clinical research officers at each participating centre. In OPEN the goals were to define the morbidity and mortality of contemporary PCI in France and to identify factors predictive of adverse outcome.

METHODS

This prospective, observational study was carried out in a cohort of 3109 consecutive patients who underwent PCI in 79 centres located throughout France. Treatment was entirely at the discretion of the clinician, and patients were followed up for one month. The following data were collected at inclusion in the registry: patient demographics, medical history, prescribed treatment, cardiovascular risk factors (hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes, smoking), and the clinical context of the PCI. Procedural data recorded included; treated arteries, reperfusion (thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) flow …