Aims: We sought to investigate the impact of an invasive treatment in elderly patients presenting with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) in clinical practice.
Methods and results: We analysed data of consecutive elderly patients (> or =75 years) with NSTEMI who were prospectively enrolled in the German Acute Coronary Syndromes registry between July 2000 and November 2002. Overall 1936 patients were divided into two groups: 1005 (51.9%) underwent coronary angiography and/or revascularization, 931 (48.1%) received conservative treatment. In the invasive group, percutaneous coronary intervention was performed in 37.5% within 48 h and in 17.6% after 48 h, whereas 9.8% underwent coronary artery bypass grafting within the hospital stay. In-hospital death (12.5 vs. 6.0%, P < 0.0001) and death/myocardial infarction (17.3 vs. 9.6%, P < 0.0001) occurred significantly less often in patients with invasive strategy. After adjustment of the confounding factors in the propensity score analysis the invasive strategy remained superior for mortality (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.35-0.86) and death and non-fatal myocardial infarction (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.35-0.75) and 1 year mortality (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.38-0.81). Major bleeding complications tended to be more frequent in the invasive group (8.8 vs. 5.8%, P = 0.07).
Conclusion: In clinical practice, in elderly patients with NSTEMI, an invasive strategy is associated with an improved in-hospital and 1 year outcome but a trend towards more bleeding complications.