Do Major Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Stable Ischemic Heart Disease in the Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation Trial Differ by Healthcare System? CIRCULATION-CARDIOVASCULAR QUALITY AND OUTCOMES Chaitman, B. R., Hartigan, P. M., Booth, D. C., Teo, K. K., Mancini, G. B., Kostuk, W. J., Spertus, J. A., Maron, D. J., Dada, M., O'Rourke, R. A., Weintraub, W. S., Berman, D. S., Shaw, L. J., Boden, W. E. 2010; 3 (5): 476-483

Abstract

The Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation (COURAGE) trial enrolled patients from 3 distinct healthcare systems (HCSs) in North America. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether there is a treatment difference in cardiovascular outcomes by HCS.The study population included 968 patients from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), 386 from the US non-VA, and 931 from Canada with different comorbidities and prognoses. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) during the median 4.6-year follow-up. Baseline demographics were similar between percutaneous coronary intervention and optimal medical therapy treatment groups within each HCS. After follow-up, the primary end point of total mortality and nonfatal MI was not statistically significant between percutaneous coronary intervention and optimal medical therapy, regardless of HCS: VA, 22.3% versus 21.9% (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.80-1.38; P=0.95); US non-VA, 15.8% versus 21.8% (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.43-1.12; P=0.24); Canadian HCS, 17.3% versus 13.5% (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 0.93-1.83; P=0.17). The interaction between HCSs and treatment was not statistically significant. Long-term mortality was significantly higher in the VA system as a result of significantly greater comorbidity and worse left ventricular function.In the COURAGE trial, addition of percutaneous coronary intervention to optimal medical therapy did not improve 5-year survival or reduce MI or other major adverse cardiovascular events regardless of whether patients were Canadian or American or US veterans or non-veterans. Outcome differences were largely explained by differences in baseline characteristics known to affect long-term prognosis.

View details for DOI 10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.109.901579

View details for Web of Science ID 000284262100008

View details for PubMedID 20664026