OBJECTIVES: To investigate adherence to guideline-based management and mortality of STEMI patients in Malaysia.

DESIGN: Retrospective analysis.

SETTINGS: STEMI patients from 18 participating hospital across Malaysia included in the National Cardiovascular Database-Acute Coronary Syndrome (NCVD-ACS) registry year 2006 to 2013.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were categorized into four subgroups based on the year of admission (2006 to 2007, 2008 to 2009, 2010 to 2011 and 2012 to 2013). Baseline characteristics and clinical presentation, in-hospital pharmacotherapy, invasive revascularization and in-hospital/30-day mortality were analysed and compared between the subgroups.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Rate of in-hospital catheterization/percutaneous coronary intervention.

RESULTS: The registry contained data on 19483 patients. Intravenous thrombolysis was the main reperfusion therapy. Although the overall rate of in-hospital catheterisation/PCI more than doubled over the study period, while the use of primary PCI only slowly increased from 7.6% in 2006/2007 to 13.6% in 2012/2013. The use of evidence-based oral therapies increased steadily over the years except for ACe-inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers. The adjusted risk ratios (RR) for in-hospital mortality for the four sub-groups have not shown any significant improvement. The 30-day adjusted risk ratios however showed a significant albeit gradual risk reduction (RR 0.773 95% CI 0.679-0.881, P < .001).

CONCLUSION: Adherence to evidence-based treatment in STEMI in Malaysia is still poor especially in terms of the rate of primary PCI. Although there is a general trend toward reduced 30-day mortality, the reduction was only slight over the study period. Drastic effort is needed to improve adherence and clinical outcomes.

METHOD: We will search PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry, CINAHL Database, and the Cochrane Library using a predefined search strategy. Other sources of literature will include proceedings from the European Society of Cardiology, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the EUROPCR, and the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database. We will include data from observational studies (case-control and cohort study design) and randomized control trials (that have investigated the relationship of D2B time and clinical outcome(s) in an adult (older than 18) STEMI population). Mortality (cardiac related and all-cause) and incidence heart failure (HF) have been prioritized as the primary outcomes. All eligible studies will be assessed for risk of bias using the Risk Of Bias in Non-randomized Studies - of Interventions tool. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, and Evaluation (GRADE) framework will be used to report the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. We will proceed to analyze the data quantitatively if the pre-specified conditions are satisfied.

DISCUSSION: Recent discussion on the negative findings of improved D2B delay over time being unrelated to better STEMI outcomes at the population level has reminded us of an important knowledge gap we have on this domain. This systematic review will serve to address some of these key questions not previously examined. Answers to these questions could clarify the controversies and offer empirical support for or against the suggested hypotheses.

METHODS: Revascularised acute myocardial infarction patients with normal left ventricular (LV) systolic function on TTE were assessed by 1.5T CMR. Acute regional diastolic wall motion abnormalities, global diastolic function measurements, acute segmental damage fraction with LGE and mean segmental pre-contrast T1 values were assessed on matching short axis slices.

RESULTS: Forty-four patients were analysed. Mean LVEF was 62.1±9.4%. No difference between NSTEMI (22/44) and STEMI in mean pre-contrast T1 values of infarcted (1025.0±109.2 vs 1011.0±81.6ms, p=0.70), adjacent (948.3±45.3 vs 941.1±46.6ms, p=0.70) and remote (888.8±52.8 vs 881.2±54.5ms, p=0.66) segments was detected. There was no correlation between pre-contrast T1 of infarcted segments with global diastolic dysfunction (E/A, r(2)=0.216, p=0.06; S/D, r(2)=0.243, p=0.053; E/E', r(2)=0.240, p=0.072), but there was significantly positive, moderate correlation with circumferential diastolic strain rate, (r(2)=0.579, p<0.01) with excellent agreement and reproducibility.

METHODS: EPICOR Asia (NCT01361386) is a prospective study of hospital survivors post-ACS enrolled in 218 hospitals from 8 countries/regions in Asia (06/2011-05/2012). All medically managed NSTE-ACS patients were classified into 3 groups: 1) no coronary angiography (CAG-); 2) non-significant coronary artery disease (CAD) on angiogram (CAG+ CAD-); and 3) significant CAD (CAG+ CAD+). We compared baseline differences between patients medically managed and patients undergoing revascularization, and also between the medically managed groups. Adverse events were reported and compared up to 2years.

RESULTS: Of 6163 NSTE-ACS patients, 2272 (37%) were medically managed, with 1339 (59%), 254 (11%), and 679 (30%) in the CAG-, CAG+ CAD-, and CAG+ CAD+ groups, respectively. There were marked differences in the proportion of medically managed patients among the 8 countries/regions (13-81%). Medically managed patients had higher mortality at 2years compared with revascularization (8.7% vs. 3.0%, p<0.001). Among medically managed patients, CAG- patients were older, more likely to have pre-existing cardiovascular disease, and had the highest 2-year mortality (10.5% vs. 4.3% [CAG+ CAD-] and 6.6% [CAG+ CAD+], p<0.001). Mortality differences persisted after adjusting for other patient risk factors.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the risk factors associated with mortality for each gender and compare differences, if any, among ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients.

DESIGN: Retrospective analysis.

SETTINGS: Hospitals across Malaysia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed data on all STEMI patients in the National Cardiovascular Database-Acute coronary syndrome (NCVD-ACS) registry for the years 2006 to 2013 (8 years). We collected demographic and risk factor data (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking status, dyslipidaemia and family history of CAD). Significant variables from the univariate analysis were further analysed by a multivariate logistic analysis to identify risk factors and compare by gender.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Differential risk factors for each gender.

RESULTS: For the 19484 patients included in the analysis, the mortality rate over the 8 years was significantly higher in females (15.4%) than males (7.5%) (P < .001). The univariate analysis showed that the majority of male patients < 65 years while females were >=65 years. The most prevalent risk factors for male patients were smoking (79.3%), followed by hypertension (54.9%) and diabetes mellitus (40.4%), while the most prevalent risk factors for female patients were hypertension (76.8%), followed by diabetes mellitus (60%) and dyslipidaemia (38.1%). The final model for male STEMI patients had seven significant variables: Killip class, age group, hypertension, renal disease, percutaneous coronary intervention and family history of CVD. For female STEMI patients, the significant variables were renal disease, smoking status, Killip class and age group.

CONCLUSION: Gender differences existed in the baseline characteristics, associated risk factors, clinical presentation and outcomes among STEMI patients. For STEMI females, the rate of mortality was twice that of males. Once they reach menopausal age, when there is less protection from the estrogen hormone and there are other risk factors, menopausal females are at increased risk for STEMI.