Management and outcome of patients with acute coronary syndrome in different units: predictors of outcome at the admission

Excerpt

Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) examined in Zagreb Clinical Centre Emergency Room can be admitted either to the coronary unit (CU), the general medical ICU (ICU) or one of cardiology wards (CW). For all the patients there has been a unique coronary intervention unit available on a 24-hour basis since January 2001. In the year 2002 there were 5731 emergency admissions (33.8% of 16,924 patients examined). All 681 patients with ACS, 318 with myocardial infarction (MI) and 363 with unstable angina (UA) were retrospectively analysed. The aim was to determine predictors of mortality and differences in treatment and hospital mortality (as a measure of quality of care) in the CU, the ICU and the CW. Number of admissions and diagnoses varied due to different unit profiles and capacities: 237 (195 MI, 41 UA) to the CU, 87 (60 MI, 27 UA) to the ICU, and 237 (60 MI, 286 UA) to the CW. Chi-square and nonparametric tests were used in statistical analyses. …