Impact of frailty and atrial fibrillation in elderly patients with acute coronary syndromes

Abstract

Background: There is scarce information on the prognostic role of frailty and Atrial Fibrillation (AF) in elderly patients Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS).

Methods: The aim was to analyse the management of elderly patients with frailty and AF who suffered an ACS using data of the prospective multicentre LONGEVO-SCA registry. We evaluated the predictive performance of FRAIL, Charlson scores and AF status for adverse events at 6 months follow-up.

Results: A total of 531 unselected patients with ACS and above 80 years old [mean age 84.4 (SD=3.6) years; 322 (60.6%) male] were enrolled, of whom 128 (24.1%) with AF and 145 (27.3%) with frailty. Mutually exclusive number of patients were as follows: non-Frail and sinus rhythm (SR) 304 (57.2%); Frail and SR 99 (18.6%); non-Frail and AF 82 (15.4%); Frail and AF 46 (8.7%). Frail and AF patients compared with non-frail and SR patients had higher risk of all-cause mortality [HR 2.61, (95%CI 1.28-5.31; p=0.008)], readmissions [HR 2.28, (95%CI 1.37-3.80); p=0.002)] and its composite [HR 2.28, (95%CI 1.44-3.60); p<0.001)]. After multivariate adjustment, FRAIL score [HR 1.41, (95%CI 1.02-1.97); p=0.040] and Charlson index [HR 1.32, (95%CI 1.09-1.59); p=0.003] were significantly associated with mortality. AF status was not independently related with adverse events.

Conclusions: Frailty but not AF status was independently associated with follow-up adverse events. Frailty status and high Charlson index were independent conditions associated with adverse events during the follow-up. The impact of functional status has a bigger prognostic role over AF status in elderly patients with ACS.