Association between Peripheral Artery Disease and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome: Findings from the Gulf COAST Registry

Objective: To evaluate the association between peripheral artery disease (PAD) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in the Arabian Gulf. Methods: Data from 4,044 consecutive patients diagnosed with ACS admitted to 29 hospitals in four Arabian Gulf countries from January 2012 to January 2013 were analyzed. PAD was defined as any of the following: claudication, amputation for arterial vascular insufficiency, vascular reconstruction, bypass surgery, or percutaneous intervention in the extremities, documented aortic aneurysm or an ankle brachial index of <0.8 in any of the legs. MACE included stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA), myocardial infarction (MI), all-cause mortality, and readmissions for cardiac reasons diagnosed between hospital admission and at 1-year post discharge. Analyses were performed using univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. Results: The overall mean age of the cohort was 60 ± 13 years and 66% (n = 2,686) were males. A total of 3.3% (n = 132) of the patients had PAD. Patients with PAD were more likely to be associated with smoking, prior MI, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and stroke/TIA. At the 1-year follow-up, patients with PAD were significantly more likely to have MACE (adjusted OR [aOR], 2.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.41-3.06; p< 0.001). The higher rates of events were also observed across all MACE components; stroke/TIA (aOR, 3.22; 95% CI: 1.80-5.75; p< 0.001), MI (aOR, 2.15; 95% CI: 1.29-3.59; p =0.003), all-cause mortality (aOR, 2.21; 95% CI: 1.33-3.69; p =0.002), and readmissions for cardiac reasons (aOR, 1.83; 95% CI: 1.24-2.70; p =0.003). Conclusions: PAD was significantly associated with MACE in ACS patients in the Arabian Gulf.