GRACE, TIMI, Zwolle and CADILLAC risk scores — Do they predict 5-year outcomes after ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated invasively?
Introduction
There are few reports concerning 5-year outcomes in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with primary percutaneous coronary interventions (pPCI). In the randomized study PRAGUE-2, the overall mortality rate was 19%, including 6.8% within the first 30 days and 14.9% during the next 5 years among 30-day survivors [1]. In the Zwolle trial, 22% of patients died within 8 years [2]. Next, the Italian single-center experience with a mean follow-up of 51 months showed the overall mortality of 20% (including cardiac mortality—16%) [3]. Independent predictors of time of survival (a multivariate Cox analysis) were age, cardiogenic shock, multivessel coronary artery disease (CAD), and previous myocardial infarction [3].
Identifying high-risk-individuals with STEMI remains a challenge, especially in the case of long-term prognosis. There are several risk scores used for prediction of short-term survival (GRACE, TIMI, Zwolle, or CADILLAC risk scores — Table 1), but none of them has been tested for follow-up for as long a period as 5 years.
The most widespread tool is the GRACE risk score, recently recommended by The European Society of Cardiology for risk stratification in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome [4]. It includes basic, but very detailed, data from physical examination and laboratory tests. It was developed from a large unselected population of patients with all forms of acute coronary syndromes and was primarily used for prognosis of in-hospital all-cause mortality [5]. The TIMI risk score for STEMI is a very simple alternative, derived from highly selected patients treated with fibrinolytics from the InTIME II trial [6]. The Zwolle risk score is also valuable, because it takes into account additional data from the coronary intervention [7]. Finally, there is a more sophisticated tool, the CADILLAC risk score that also analyzes biochemical data and ejection fraction [8]. Each of the scores has different characteristics and advantages. Both TIMI and Zwolle are based on logistic regression of the 30-day follow-up, whereas CADILLAC was constructed with the use of a 1-year analysis. In the case of TIMI and CADILLAC, patients with the highest risk of death were not included in the model, as only highly selected patients participated in the clinical trials that served as derivation sets. On the contrary, GRACE and Zwolle were developed from “real-life” registries. Finally, only Zwolle and CADILLAC scores were based entirely on individuals treated invasively.
As listed above, there are several factors that might influence performance of specific risk scores in patients with myocardial infarction. Further application of the risk scores for long-term follow-up would also bring a very interesting perspective.
The aim of our analysis was to assess the usefulness of GRACE, TIMI, Zwolle, and CADILLAC risk scores for predicting 5-year mortality in our registry of unselected patients with STEMI treated with pPCI.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Our registry consisted of consecutive unselected patients admitted to a single reference centre due to acute STEMI in the years 2000–2002 (including patients transported from local hospitals without invasive treatment facilities). They all underwent pPCI within 12 h of the onset of symptoms. STEMI was diagnosed on the basis of chest pain history, ST-elevation in ECG (at least 0.1 mV in 2 contiguous leads, in the case of leads V1–V3 — at least 0.2 mV) and a rise in cardiac necrosis markers above
Results
Our registry comprised 514 consecutive patients. Nine of them were lost to follow-up due to migration beyond the Voivodeship's border (the registry used for retrieving follow-up includes only Podlaskie Voivodship). All further analysis was performed in the remaining 505 individuals (98.2%) with a completed 5-year observation. Median time of follow-up was 63.6 months. All-cause mortality reached 20.99% (n = 106). Thirty-two patients died during the first 30 days (6.3%); 51 in the first year (10.09%).
Discussion
In our “real-life” single-center registry of patients with STEMI treated with pPCI, 5-year mortality was 21% — high, though comparable with previous publications [1], [2]. In these conditions the GRACE risk score had the highest prognostic accuracy both for 30-day and 5-year follow-up. The other risk scores had insignificantly lower performances.
The good prognostic value of the GRACE score was expected; the model is very detailed, designed for prognosis of all-cause mortality, and based on a
Acknowledgement
The project was supported by a grant No 4-53850. The authors of this manuscript have certified that they comply with the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology [22].
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