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Coronary Progenitor Cells and Soluble Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Prognosis after Coronary Angioplasty
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Coronary Progenitor Cells and Soluble Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Prognosis after Coronary Angioplasty

Published on: January 28, 2020

Clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of elderly patients with coronary artery disease

Shutong Wang1, Chen Li1, Zichen Huang2

  • 1Department of Geriatrics, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
|July 10, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Elderly patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) have distinct characteristics and risk factors. Anemia, left main lesions, multivessel disease, and low ejection fraction predict major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in this population.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Geriatric Medicine
  • Clinical Research

Background:

  • Elderly patients (≥75 years) with coronary artery disease (CAD) present unique clinical profiles compared to younger individuals.
  • Understanding prognostic factors and predictive scores is crucial for managing cardiovascular risk in older adults.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the clinical characteristics of elderly patients with CAD.
  • To analyze 1-year prognostic factors for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).
  • To evaluate the predictive value of the Optimal Antiplatelet Therapy for Chinese patients with Coronary Artery Disease (OPT-CAD) score.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional study of 4,836 patients (≥60 years) with coronary artery stenosis (≥50%).
  • Comparison of clinical characteristics between non-elderly (60-74 years) and elderly (≥75 years) groups.
  • Retrospective cohort study of 508 elderly patients followed for 1 year to identify MACE predictors and assess OPT-CAD score performance against the GRACE score.

Main Results:

  • Elderly patients showed lower male prevalence, lipid levels, and BMI, but more extensive/severe coronary lesions.
  • 1-year MACE occurred in 10.3% of elderly patients, with 3.2% mortality.
  • Independent MACE predictors included anemia, left main lesion, multivessel disease, and LVEF <50%. The OPT-CAD score had moderate predictive capacity (AUC=0.628), comparable to the GRACE score.

Conclusions:

  • Elderly patients with CAD exhibit reduced traditional risk factors but more complex disease.
  • Anemia, left main lesion, multivessel disease, and low LVEF (<50%) are significant independent risk factors for adverse outcomes in elderly patients with CAD.
  • The OPT-CAD score shows moderate predictive ability for MACE in elderly patients with CAD, similar to the GRACE score.
Abstract

Keywords:
OPT-CADcoronary artery diseaseelderlyprognosisrisk score model

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