One-year clinical outcomes in older patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome undergoing coronary angiography: An analysis of the ICON1 study.

AIMS: The aim of this prospective, observational study was to identify predictors of adverse outcome at one year, following invasive care of older patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS) according to frailty status. METHODS: Older patients (aged ≥ 75 years), presenting with NSTEACS, undergoing invasive coronary angiography with a view to revascularisation, underwent assessment of frailty, cognition, functional status and quality of life. Participants were categorised as robust, pre-frail or frail using the Fried criteria. The primary outcome comprised a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, unplanned revascularisation and major bleeding, at one year. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to derive a multivariate risk score. RESULTS: Overall, the composite endpoint was observed in 81 participants (29%). There was a significant difference in the occurrence of the primary outcome in the 3 frailty groups (robust 18.0%, pre-frail 27.5% and frail 39%; p = 0.03; hazard ratio (HR) for frail vs. robust: 2.79, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.28-6.08). Fried frailty classification, age (categorised as ≥85 years), raised Killip class, systolic blood pressure on admission, history of peripheral vascular disease (PVD), problems dressing self and implantation of a bare metal stent were identified as predictors of adverse events at one year, with a C-statistic of 0.77 (95% CI 0.71-0.83). A point-based clinical risk score (FRAIL-HEART) was defined, which had a C-statistic of 0.70 (95% CI 0.63-0.77) and significantly outperformed the GRACE 2 score. CONCLUSION: Frailty is associated with adverse clinical outcomes, following invasive management of older patients with NSTEACS. The derived risk models may enable improved risk stratification in practice.