Abstract
Aspirin has been shown to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, its effects on long-term (over 10years) mortality have not been fully elucidated.
This retrospective study recorded the patient characteristics and admission medication for all patients undergoing PCI over an 8-year period from 1984 to 1992. Follow-up information was available for 748 patients (100%) for a mean of 143.6 ± 43.4 months. A propensity analysis was performed to adjust for presumed selection biases in the administration of aspirin.
The baseline clinical characteristics were similar between the group that received aspirin and the group that did not, except for the administration of statins and PCI procedural success rate. Of the 748 patients, 535 (71.5%) received aspirin treatment at the time of PCI. During the 12-year follow-up, 54 patients died from any cause and 20 patients from cardiac death. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that aspirin treatment led to a significant reduction in all cause mortality (10% versus 16.4%; P = 0.01) and cardiac death (3.7% versus 8.0%; P = 0.02) compared to other antiplatelet drugs. The hazard ratio (HR) for the total mortality and cardiac mortality rates was adjusted using the Cox-proportional hazard model for confounding variables and propensity score. The all cause (HR, 0.49; 95%CI [0.29-0.80], P = 0.005) and cardiac mortality rates (HR, 0.32; 95%CI [0.14-0.72], P = 0.006) for patients receiving aspirin remained lower than for those not receiving aspirin.
Aspirin treatment at the time of PCI significantly reduced the risk of death from any cause and cardiac death. The administration of aspirin had a positive impact on the over 10-year long-term outcomes of patients who underwent PCI. (Int Heart J 2006; 47 : 37-45 )
