Prognosis of patients with coronary artery disease treated in different therapy units at department of cardiology: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major health problem in global. Benefit from different care unit for various type of CAD is remaining unknown. We investigate if coronary care unit (CCU) reduces the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs).

Method: 806 CAD patients including stable angina (SA) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who treated in department of cardiology were involved in the study as two groups. Each group involved two subgroups according to the therapy unit including CCU and normal unit. 12-48 months follow-up was carried out. The primary end point was all cause mortality.

Results: For SA, death from any cause occurred in 1.0% of the patients in the normal group (1 of 108), as compared with 5.1% in the CCU group (3 of 59) (hazard ratio [HR], 0.164; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.017 to 1.580; P=0.118). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that there were no significant differences between the two subgroups with respect to the risk of death (P=0.074), revascularization (P=0.660), stroke (P=0.497), heart failure (P=0.658) and hemorrhage (P=0.096). For ACS, death occurred in 1.9% of the patients in the normal subgroup (5 of 267), as compared with 1.3% in the CCU subgroup (5 of 372) (HR, 1.403; 95% CI, 0.406-4.846; P=0.593). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that there were no significant differences between the two subgroups with respect to the risk of death (P=0.591), revascularization (P=0.996), stroke (P=0.425), heart failure (P=0.625).

Conclusion: CAD patients treated in CCU obtain little benefits compared with normal.