Frailty in elderly patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention

The prevalence of frailty, cognitive impairment and disability and its prognostic impact in patients with myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention is unknown.

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of frailty and other ageing-related variables and their association with inhospital mortality in consecutive elderly ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention in a tertiary care hospital.

We prospectively included patients aged 75 years or older with STEMI undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The nursing team provided pre-discharge, standardised questionnaires and tests to each patient to study the presence of frailty (FRAIL scale), comorbidity (Charlson index), disability (Barthel test, Lawton–Brody index), nutritional risk (MNA-SF test) and cognitive status (Pfeiffer test). The association between ageing-related variables and mortality was assessed by binary logistic regression.

A total of 259 patients were included with a mean age of 82.6±6 years, 57.9% men. A total of 51 patients (19.7%) were frail, 26 presented with moderate or severe disability (10%), and 82 were at risk of malnutrition (31.7%). Frailty was associated with a higher prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and previous stroke, and a higher inhospital mortality (21.6% vs. 3.4%; P<0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders, this association remained significant (odds ratio 3.96; 95% confidence interval 1.16–13.56; P=0.028).

A not negligible proportion of elderly patients with STEMI fulfilled the frailty criteria. Frailty was independently associated with mortality. A very simple, feasible geriatric assessment by trained nurses can contribute to predict mortality.