Racial Variation in the Complexity of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients with Acute ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Background: Racial variations in presentation of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have been suggested. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of a tertiary center from 2012 to 2016. We included patients presenting with acute STEMI who received primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The main outcome was racial variation in the complexity of coronary artery disease assessed by SYNTAX score. We also reported predictors of higher SYNTAX scores in the study population. Results: Our final analysis included 260 patients: 201 Whites (77.3%), 24 African Americans-AA (9.2%), 19 Hispanics (7.3%) and 15 were of other ethnicities (5.8%). The mean SYNTAX score was 13.8 ± 7.7. There was no significant difference between Whites, AA, Hispanics and other races in the SYNTAX score (13.8 ± 7.7, 13.4 ± 7.9, 14.5 ± 9 and 13.5 ± 6.6, p = 0.965). Logistic regression analysis identified chronic kidney disease as the only significant predictor of higher SYNTAX score (Coefficient = 3.5, 95%CI:0.41–6.60, p = 0.026), while no significant association was identified between different races and higher SYNTAX score. Conclusion: The current study did not identify racial variations in the complexity of coronary artery disease for STEMI patients. Further studies are needed at a larger scale to identify racial variations in STEMI patients.