Incications and complications of invasive diagnostic procedures and percutaneous coronary interventions in the year 2003. Results of the quality control registry of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitende Kardiologische Krankenhausarzte (ALKK).

BACKGROUND

The ALKK registry contains about 20% of the invasive and interventional cardiological procedures performed in Germany.

METHODS

In 2003 a total of 82,282 consecutive diagnostic invasive and 30,689 interventional procedures from 75 hospitals were centrally collected and analyzed.

RESULTS

The main indication for an invasive diagnostic procedure was coronary artery disease in 92.5% of cases, myocardial disease in 1.6%, impaired left ventricular function in 4.0%, valve disease in 4% and other indications in 1.9%. An acute coronary syndrome was present in 25% of the patients. The rate of severe complications in patients with a lone diagnostic invasive procedure was low (<0.5%). The indication for percutaneous coronary intervention (n=30,689) was stable angina in 44.1%, ST elevation myocardial infarction in 22.3%, non ST elevation myocardial infarction in 14.8%, unstable angina in 10.0%, silent ischemia in 2.2%, prognostic in 5.2% of patients. The majority of interventions were performed directly after the diagnostic procedure (n=23,887=78.6%). The intervention was successful in 94.6% of cases. Stent implantation was performed in 77.2%, with 1 stent in 88.4%, two stents in 7.6% and 3 or more stents in 3.3%. A drug-eluting stent was implanted in 3.6% of the cases. The complication rate after PCI was influenced by the indication for the intervention. The in-hospital mortality in patients with cardiogenic shock was 33%, while in patients with stable angina, silent ischemia and prognostic indication only 0.2% died.

CONCLUSION

There is an increase of invasive diagnostic and interventional procedures in patients with acute coronary syndromes, with 47% of PCIs performed in these patient. PCIs were performed in 75% of the cases directly after the diagnostic procedure. The rate of stent implantation seems to have reached a plateau at around 80%, while drug-eluting stents were implanted only in a minority of cases. The complication rate is mainly dependent on the clinical presentation of the patients and the indication for PCI.