Outcomes and Characteristics of Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Cirrhosis

Patients with cirrhosis have increased bleeding risk due to coagulopathy and platelet sequestration, as well as inherent cardiovascular risk. We aim to assess the impact of cirrhosis on the revascularization rates and in-hospital outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

We queried the National Inpatient Sample Database from 2010 to 2014 and identified hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of AMI (n = 612,547); of these, a total of 3135 patients had a concomitant diagnosis of cirrhosis. We compared clinical outcomes between patients with cirrhosis and a propensity-score matched cohort without cirrhosis (n = 3086).

Patients with cirrhosis had a lower rate of ST-elevation MI (18.9% vs 26.7% in the cohort with no cirrhosis; P<.001), a lower rate of coronary angiography (51.4% vs 63.9% in the cohort with no cirrhosis; P<.001), and lower rates of revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (28.7% vs 39.2% in the cohort with no cirrhosis; P<.001) or coronary artery bypass grafting (6.0% vs 12.9% in the cohort with no cirrhosis; P<.001). Gastrointestinal and postprocedural hemorrhage was more common in patients with cirrhosis (12.3% vs 7.1% in the cohort with no cirrhosis; P<.001), regardless of revascularization status, and cirrhosis patients also had a higher in-hospital mortality rate (8.7% vs 6.9% in the cohort with no cirrhosis; P<.01). PCI was independently associated with lower mortality in patients with cirrhosis (odds ratio, 0.57; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.98; P=.04).

Patients with cirrhosis presenting with AMI were highly selected to undergo coronary angiography and subsequent revascularization, and had higher mortality than those without cirrhosis. However, PCI was independently associated with lower mortality in patients with cirrhosis, although to less effect than non-cirrhotics, perhaps due to higher bleeding rates.