External validation of Leipzig-Halifax scores for aortic dissection in Armenia

Few prognostic tools are currently available to predict hospital mortality in patients with acute type A aortic dissection. The aim of this study was to validate the performance of two existing risk-assessment tools, the original and the adjusted Leipzig-Halifax scorecards, to predict hospital mortality among Armenian patients with acute type A aortic dissection.

This retrospective cohort study included all consecutive patients with acute type A aortic dissection who were admitted to two tertiary cardiac centers in Armenia and underwent surgery from January 2008 to April 2018. We evaluated the predictive power of the original and adjusted Leipzig-Halifax scorecards using logistic regression analysis.

Overall, 211 patients (76% males, mean age 57 ± 9 years) were included in the study, of whom 37 (17.5%) died during hospitalization. The adjusted Leipzig-Halifax score, but not the original Leipzig-Halifax score, was a significant predictor of hospital mortality. Patients with medium and high adjusted Leipzig-Halifax scores had a significantly higher odds of death compared to patients with low scores (odds ratio = 3.0 vs. 3.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.3-6.9 vs. 1.0-14.9, respectively). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.58 and 0.63, respectively, p > 0.05.

The adjusted Leipzig-Halifax score performed slightly better than the original Leipzig-Halifax score in the Armenian acute type A aortic dissection population. The adjusted Leipzig-Halifax score should now be applied prospectively to generate more data for further validation and potential improvement.