Sex aspects of guideline-directed therapy in young ST- elevation myocardial infarction patients

Abstract Background Young women are at specific risk for a poor outcome after ST- elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We aimed to investigate sex- and age-specific differences in adherence to a guideline-directed drug therapy for secondary prophylaxis and to assess its effect on overall survival. Methods Administrative health insurance data (≈26 million members) was screened for patients 18- < 60 years with STEMI from 01/2008 to 12/2018. Patient demographics, details on in-hospital treatment, long-term adherence to guideline-directed drug therapy and the effect on mortality was assessed. Results 59,401 patients <60 years (19.3 % women, median age 53 (IQR 48 - 56) were treated in-hospital with STEMI. Overall, adherence to a guideline-directed heart failure therapy decreased over time. 180 days post STEMI, 80.3 % of women and 82.9 % of men <60 were on complete secondary prophylaxis with ACE/AT1 blockers, beta blockers, statins and a platelet activation inhibitor. Five years after the event, however, only 36.6 % of women and 40.9 % of men were under complete therapy. Similarly with a lower drug adherence, women showed a poorer outcome after STEMI with a 90-day mortality of 7.9 % compared to 6.4 % in men as well as a poorer overall survival (p<0.001). After adjustment for patients’ risk factors, there was a clear association between guideline directed therapy and overall survival. The positive association increased with the number of drugs taken. Moreover, sex-specific differences were specifically evident, if all four drugs were prescribed. The effect on overall survival of one heart failure drug was marginal and not sex-specific with a HR of 0.88 (95% CI 0.76-1.02) in women versus HR 0.91 (95% CI 0.84 - 0.99) in men (pint =0.707). Under complete guideline directed therapy, however, HR for overall survival was 0.22 (95% CI 0.19-0.26) in women versus HR 0.31 (95% CI 0.28 - 0.33) in men (pint <0.001). Conclusion Long-term adherence to an optimal guideline-directed drug therapy after STEMI is generally low with specifically women <60 years lacking a consistent therapy. The lack of consistent therapy is one aspect explaining the poor outcome after STEMI in younger women. Our data show, that women specifically benefit from a consistent secondary prophylaxis. As the underutilization of heart failure drugs is contributory to the unfavorable outcome in young female and male patients, systematic approaches and education of healthcare providers are needed to ensure the long-term use of heart failure drugs specifically in this patient cohort at risk.Kaplan-Meier estimatesCox regression analysis