A study was conducted to determine temporal trends, invasive treatment utilization and impact on outcomes of pre-infarction drug abuse (DA) on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in adults. DA is important risk factor for AMI. However, temporal trends in drug abuse on AMI hospitalization outcomes in adults are lacking. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was used in this study. AMI and DA were identified as primary and secondary diagnosis respectively using ICD-9-CM codes, and used the Cochrane Armitage trend test and multivariate regression to generate adjusted odds ratios (aOR).
There were a total of 7,174,274 AMI hospital admissions from 2002 to 2012 of which 1.67% had DA. Proportion of hospitalizations with DA increased from 5.63% to 12.08% (P trend < 0.001). Utilization of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) was lower in patients with DA (7.83% vs. 9.18%, P < 0.001). In-hospital mortality was significantly lower in patients with DA (aOR 0.811; 95% CI 0.693–0.735; P < 0.001) but discharge to specialty care was higher (aOR 1.076; 95% CI 1.025–1.128; P < 0.001). The median cost of hospitalization (40,834 vs. 37,253; P < 0.001) was higher in hospitalizations with DA.
This study demonstrates an increasing proportion of adults admitted with AMI have DA over the decade. However, DA has paradoxical association with mortality in adults. DA is associated with lower CABG utilization and higher discharge to specialty care, with a higher mean cost of hospitalization. The reasons for the paradoxical association of DA with mortality and worse morbidity outcomes need to be explored in greater detail.
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by Dr. Zeeshan Mansuri MD MPH
Psychiatry Resident, Texas Tech University Health Science Center (Midland, TX)
