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. 2017 Apr 27;12(4):e0176257.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176257. eCollection 2017.

Clinical presentation and management of stable coronary artery disease in Austria

Otto Pichlhöfer  1 , Manfred Maier  1 , Roza Badr-Eslam  2 , Robin Ristl  3 , Magdalena Zebrowska  3 , Irene M Lang  2
Affiliations

Clinical presentation and management of stable coronary artery disease in Austria

Otto Pichlhöfer et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in Austria. However, no systematic information exists regarding characteristics and treatments of contemporary patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) in Austria. We assembled two retrospective physicians' databases to describe demographics, clinical profiles, and therapeutic strategies in patients with stable CAD. In addition, we compared patient profiles of secondary care internists and hospital-based cardiologists with those of general practitioners in a primary care setting outside of hospital.

Methods: The study population was identified from retrospective chart review of 1020 patients from 106 primary care physicians in Austria (ProCor II registry), and was merged with a previous similar database of 1280 patients under secondary care (ProCor I registry) to yield a total patient number of 2300.

Results: Female patients with stable CAD were older, had more angina and/or heart failure symptoms, and more depression than males. Female gender, type 2 diabetes mellitus, higher CCS class and asthma/COPD were predictors of elevated heart rate, while previous coronary events/revascularization predicted a lower heart rate in multivariate analysis. There were no significant differences with regard to characteristics and management of patients of general practitioners in the primary care setting versus internists in secondary care.

Conclusions: Characteristics and treatments of unselected patients with stable ischemic heart disease in Austria resemble the pattern of large international registries of stable ischemic heart disease, with the exception that diabetes and systemic hypertension were more prevalent.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: IML reports receiving consulting fees from AOPOrphan Pharmaceuticals, Actelion, Bayer-Schering, Astra-Zeneca, Servier, Cordis, Medtronic, GSK, Novartis, Pfizer and United Therapeutics. In addition to being investigator in trials involving these companies, relationships include research grants, and membership of scientific advisory boards. OP received a consultation fee from Servier Austria associated with the data acquisition for this study. Remaining contributing authors do not have relationships to drug companies conflicting with the current manuscript. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Regression estimates and confidence intervals of simple models analyzing predictors of heart rate in ProCor I (blue) and ProCor II (red).
The effect of age is shown in HR change per 10 years. Female denotes female gender.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Regression estimates and confidence intervals of simple models analyzing predictors of heart rate using variables that were unique to the ProCor II dataset.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Regression estimates and confidence intervals resulting from multiple imputations and variable selections applied to the pooled data from ProCor I and ProCor II.
Female denotes female gender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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