High SYNTAX score predicts worse in-hospital clinical outcomes in patients undergoing primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVE: A high SYNTAX score (SXscore) is a predictor of adverse outcomes for stable and unstable coronary syndromes. We aimed to examine whether a high SXscore will determine in-hospital clinical outcomes in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

METHODS: A total of 646 (mean age 56.1 ± 12.5; 516 males, 130 females) patients with STEMI undergoing a primary percutaneous coronary intervention were evaluated prospectively. The study population was divided into tertiles based on the SXscore values. A high SXscore (n=196) was defined as a value in the third tertile (>21.75), and a low SXscore (n=450) was defined as a value in the lower two tertiles (≤21.75). Patients were followed up for in-hospital clinical outcomes.

RESULTS: In-hospital cardiovascular mortality occurred more in the high SXscore group than in the low SXscore group (10.7 and 2.4%, respectively, P<0.001). In a receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, an SXscore value of 21.75 was identified as an effective cut point in STEMI for in-hospital cardiovascular mortality (area under curve=0.75, 95% confidence interval: 0.66-0.83, P<0.001). An SXscore value of more than 21.75 yielded a sensitivity of 66% and a specificity of 71.5%. A significant association was noted between a high SXscore level and the adjusted risk of in-hospital cardiovascular mortality (odds ratio: 3.92, 95% confidence interval: 1.1-13.9, P=0.03).

CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that patients with a high SXscore undergoing primary angioplasty for STEMI have a poor in-hospital survival, and that a high SXscore represents an independent risk factor for in-hospital cardiovascular mortality.