Patients with acute myocardial infarction and severe target lesion calcifications undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention have poor long-term prognosis

BACKGROUND: To assess the influence of severe target lesion calcification (TLC) on the outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) due to acute myocardial infarction (AMI). AIM: Contemporary data concerning coronary artery calcifications (CAC) are based on pooled analyses from randomised trials with short follow-up. We still lack the knowledge on how CAC in target lesions affect long-term prognosis of patients with AMI in everyday practice. METHODS: We evaluated clinical and laboratory data of 206 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography and PCI due to AMI. Primary endpoints were all-cause death and recurrent hospitalisations due to acute coronary syndrome (ACS). RESULTS: Severe TLC lesions were present in 17% of patients. These patients were older (71 vs. 65 years, p = 0.02) and more often diagnosed with non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (77% vs. 58%, p = 0.03). Patients with severe TLC had lower rates of PCI success (80% vs. 97%, p < 0.0001) and less often achieved full revascularisation during index procedure (14% vs. 41%, p = 0.003). During 30 months follow-up patients with severe TLC more often suffered from another ACS (37% vs. 13%, p = 0.0005) and had higher all-cause mortality (31% vs. 16%, p = 0.04). Multivariate Cox regression model showed severe TLC to be an independent predictor of another ACS (HR 2.8; 95% CI 1.4-5.6; p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Severe TLC are not uncommon in patients with ACS. The presence of severe TLC is a prognostic factor of another ACS in AMI patients undergoing PCI.