The following is a summary of “Sex-Specific Differences in Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Coronary Bifurcation Lesions,” published in the November 2023 issue of Cardiology by Hosseinpour, et al.
Bifurcation lesions pose challenges during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and recent studies have investigated potential sex-specific differences in patient outcomes. Researchers performed a retrospective study to evaluate gender-based differences in clinical outcomes for bifurcation PCI.
The study conducted a meta-analysis using the random-effects method to compare clinical outcomes in coronary bifurcation lesions patients following PCI, with a specific focus on gender differences (women vs. men). The relative risk (RR) and 95% CI results were presented. The comparison was made between the two groups regarding baseline comorbidities and mean age. The meta-analysis incorporated data from four observational studies involving 30,684 patients (8,898 women and 21,786 men). They observed that women were significantly older than men and had a higher prevalence of baseline comorbidities.
Using adjusted data from 2 out of 4 available studies, performing PCI for bifurcation lesions in women did not show an increased risk of mortality (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.78–2.29), myocardial infarction (RR 1.22, 95% CI 0.41–3.61), target lesion revascularization (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.40–2.81), stent thrombosis (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.09–10.52), and stroke (RR 1.19, 95% CI 0.64–2.22). However, women had a higher risk of major bleeding compared to their male counterparts (RR 2.23, 95% CI 1.73–2.89).
The study found that bifurcation PCI outcomes are similar for women and men, except for bleeding risk, which requires further research with age and comorbidity adjustments.
