Novel insights into clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in Vietnam

Background: Little is known about percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) practices and outcomes in low-and middle-income nations, despite its rapid uptake across Asia. For the first time, we report on clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes for patients undergoing PCI at a leading cardiac centre in Vietnam.

Methods: Information on characteristics, treatments, and outcomes of patients undergoing PCI was collected into the first PCI registry through direct interviews using a standardised form, medical record abstraction, and reading PCI imaging data on secured disks. Subgroup analysis was also conducted to explore gender differences.

Results: Between September 2017 and May 2018, 1022 patients undergoing PCI were recruited from a total of 1041 procedures. The mean age was 68.3 years and two thirds were male. While 54.4% of patients presented with acute coronary syndromes, the rate of ST-elevation myocardial infarction was 14.5%. The majority of lesions were classified as type B2 and C and the radial artery was the most common access location for PCI (79.2%). The use of drug-eluting stents was universal and the angiographic success rate was 99.4%. Cardiac complications following PCI were rare with the exception of major bleeding (2.0%). Female patients were older with relatively more comorbidities and a higher incidence of major bleeding than males (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Findings of this study provide an opportunity to benchmark current PCI practices in Vietnam, identify possible care gaps and potentially inform the adoption of treatment guidelines as well as use of prevention strategies.