Aims: To assess gender differences in outcome with an early invasive or non-invasive strategy in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACS).
Methods and results: We included 46,455 patients [14 819 women (32%) and 31,636 men (68%)] from the SWEDEHEART register, with NSTE ACS, between 2000 and 2006, and followed them for 1 year. In the non-invasive strategy arm, the relative risk (RR) of death was (women vs. men) 1.02 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.94-1.11] and in the invasive strategy arm 1.12 (95% CI, 0.96-1.29). After adjustment for baseline differences between the genders, with propensity score and discharge medication, there was a similar trend towards better outcome among women in both the early non-invasive cohort [RR 0.90 (95% CI, 0.82-0.99)] and the early invasive cohort [RR 0.90 (95% CI, 0.76-1.06)], although it did not reach statistical significance in the early invasive cohort. Results were similar with the combined endpoint death/myocardial infarction. An early invasive treatment was associated with a marked, and similar, mortality reduction in women [RR 0.46 (95% CI, 0.38-0.55)] and men [RR 0.45 (95% CI, 0.40-0.52)], without interaction with gender.
Conclusion: In this large cohort of patients with NSTE ACS, reflecting real-life management, women and men had similar and better outcome associated with an invasive strategy.