Accessibility to Reperfusion Therapy Among Women with Acute Myocardial Infarction: Impact on Hospital Mortality

Background: The available evidence about the effect of gender and/or sex on mortality differences is contradictory. Our aim is to assess the impact of gender on the access to reperfusion therapy in patients with acute coronary syndrome with ST-segment elevation (STEMI), and secondly, to analyze the effect of delay on the differences with regard to hospital mortality. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among consecutive patients with STEMI included in the ARIAM-SEMICYUC registry (2010-2013). Results: A total of 4816 patients were included (22.09% women). Women were older, presented with longer patient delay (90 vs. 75 minutes, p=0.0066), higher risk profile (GRACE>140: 75.1% vs. 56.05%, p<0.0001), and received less reperfusion therapy (68.8% vs. 74.7%, p<0.0001) with longer total reperfusion time (307 vs. 240 minutes, p<0.0001). Women received less thrombolysis (24.53% vs. 29.98%, p<0.0001) and longer door-to-needle time (85 vs. 70 minutes, p 0.0023). We found no differences regarding primary percutaneous coronary intervention or door-to-balloon time. Women also had higher hospital mortality (crude odds ratio 2.54, 95% confidence interval 1.99-3.26, p<0.0001), which persisted after controlling the effect of patient delay, age, risk (GRACE), and reperfusion (adjusted odds ratio 1.43, 95% confidence interval 1.0-2.06, p=0.0492). Using TIMI or Killip risk scores as risk estimates yielded nonsignificant results. Conclusions: Compared with men, women with STEMI have worse access to reperfusion and higher hospital mortality. The impact of the differences in accessibility on mortality gap remains uncertain.