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J Am Coll Cardiol, 2003; 42:1406-1411, doi:10.1016/S0735-1097(03)01044-1 © 2003 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation |
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* Clinical Trials and Evidence-Based Medicine Unit, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine and the Biomedical Research Institute, Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas Ioannina, Greece
Division of Clinical Care Research, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Department of Cardiology, Athens Euroclinic, Athens, Greece
Manuscript received February 26, 2003; revised manuscript received April 4, 2003, accepted April 10, 2003.
* Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. John P. A. Ioannidis, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina 45110, Greece.
jioannid{at}cc.uoi.gr
| Abstract |
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BACKGROUND: Several studies have evaluated the relationship of CK-MB levels after PCI with the subsequent risk of death. While there is consensus that elevations exceeding 5 times the upper limit of normal increase mortality significantly, there is uncertainty about the exact clinical impact of smaller CK-MB elevations.
METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of seven studies with CK-MB measurements and survival outcomes on 23,230 subjects who underwent PCI. Data were combined with random effects models.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 6 to 34 months per study. By random effects, 19% (95% confidence interval [CI], 16% to 23%) had one- to five-fold CK-MB elevations, while only 6% (95% CI, 5% to 9%) had >5-fold elevations. Compared with subjects with normal CK-MB, there was a dose-response relationship with relative risks for death being 1.5 (95% CI, 1.2 to 1.8, no between-study heterogeneity) with one- to three-fold CK-MB elevations, 1.8 (95% CI, 1.4 to 2.4, no between-study heterogeneity) with three- to five-fold CK-MB elevations, and 3.1 (95% CI, 2.3 to 4.2, borderline between-study heterogeneity) with over five-fold CK-MB elevations (p < 0.001 for all).
CONCLUSIONS: Any increase in CK-MB after PCI is associated with a small, but statistically and clinically significant, increase in the subsequent risk of death.
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| Methods |
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We identified eligible studies in MEDLINE and EMBASE (last search updated February 2003) using the keywords creatine kinase AND angioplasty or stent. We also screened bibliographies of retrieved studies and communicated with experts.
Data. For each study we recorded study design, the types of PCI employed, and the number of subjects in CK-MB strata (normal, 1- to 3-fold elevation, 3- to 5-fold elevation, >5-fold elevation). The outcome of interest was mortality during the available follow-up, excluding acute events during the PCI. Deaths were recorded per stratum. Whenever exact numbers were not provided, we approximated risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) from Kaplan-Meier curves and other presented information. Two independent investigators extracted data, and discrepancies were resolved with consensus.
Analysis. Proportions of the subjects in each CK-MB stratum across studies were synthesized with random effects models. We evaluated separately the risk ratio for mortality with one- to five-fold, one- to three-fold, three- to five-fold, and >5-fold elevation versus normal CK-MB. Risk ratios for mortality were estimated in each study, and between-study heterogeneity was estimated using the Q statistic (significant for p < 0.10) (9). Risk ratios were then combined using the general variance method, weighting each log-transformed risk ratio by the inverse of its variance (fixed effects model) or by the inverse of the sum of its variance plus the between-study variance (random effects model) (9). In the absence of between-study heterogeneity, the two models coincide, while random effects are more appropriate when there is between-study heterogeneity. Absolute risk differences for mortality across different CK-MB strata were calculated by multiplying the random effects relative risk increase (risk ratio 1) times the observed death rates in the stratum of subjects with normal CK-MB after PCI. Typical observed death rates were based on Kaplan-Meier estimates at one and two years of follow-up in studies that provided such information.
Analyses were conducted in SPSS 10.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois) and in Meta-Analyst (Joseph Lau, Boston, Massachusetts). The p values are two-tailed.
| Results |
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The seven eligible studies with complete pertinent data (5,6,1014) totaled 23,230 subjects (Table 1). Four of the eligible studies clearly stated that they excluded patients with major complications during catheterization (6,10,11,13), while three studies (5,12,14) did not comment on whether any such patients were included. All studies included a preponderance of males with a mean or median age between 58 to 65 years. A variety of PCI types had been employed in each study (Table 1). The protocol for measuring CK-MB in each study is shown in Table 1.
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Based on Kaplan-Meier plots, the one-year and two-year mortality risks among patients with normal CK-MB was 3% to 4% and 6% to 8%, respectively, in studies that provided such data (Table 2). For a cohort with a death rate of 3.5% per year among subjects with normal CK-MB, the absolute increase in the mortality risk among patients with one- to three-fold, three- to five-fold, and >5-fold CK-MB elevations after PCI would be 1.7%, 2.8%, and 7.4% per year, respectively.
| Discussion |
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Prior investigations had clearly stressed the adverse prognosis of subjects with CK-MB increases exceeding 5 times (or even 8 times) the upper limit of normal (6,8). However, such CK-MB elevations are on average three times less frequent than elevations in the one- to five-fold range. Thus, the impact of "small" CK-MB elevations on excess mortality on a population basis is not negligible when compared against the impact of the more unusual high-level increases.
Approximately one in five subjects undergoing PCI will have an elevation of CK-MB by one- to five-fold, and one in 15 subjects will have an even larger increase. Stent and atheroablative procedures may confer a higher risk of CK-MB release than PTCA (10,12,13), and combined procedures may increase the risk even further (6). Saphenous vein graft interventions may also have a higher risk of CK-MB release (27). In certain clinical settings, such as diabetes mellitus and states of elevated C-reactive protein or other inflammatory markers, patients are particularly prone to coronary microembolization, either spontaneous or iatrogenic (1). We could not address separately the risk of death in these subgroups according to CK-MB strata. However, it is possible that the absolute excess mortality may be even larger in high-risk subpopulations.
We should acknowledge that the studies included in the meta-analysis used a considerable variety of revascularization procedures. Even with 23,000 patients, the meta-analysis is not fully powered to examine whether there are any differences on what subclinical CK-MB elevations mean for different types of PCI. However, the absence of between-study heterogeneity in the risk ratios suggests that any such differences, if present, may not be very prominent. Another issue is whether the impact of the CK-MB elevations on mortality risk remains constant over long durations of follow-up. This seems to be the case at least for two to three years with minor CK-MB elevations; CK-MB may be an index of myocardial damage that carries prognostic information in the long-term even with small increases. For high CK-MB elevations, other investigators have noted a more prominent adverse prognostic impact in the early months after PCI (6), and our data, although not definitive, are also consistent with this perspective. Finally, it would be interesting to evaluate also with large-scale studies the ability of other myocardial enzymes (3,4) to predict long-term outcomes after PCI.
It has been speculated whether periprocedural embolization carries the exact same adverse prognostic implications as with spontaneous myocardial necrosis (5). Other investigators observed two- to 2.5-fold increases in the risk of death with one- to five-fold CK-MB elevations after spontaneous infarction and suggested that iatrogenic and spontaneous CK-MB elevations may have similar implications (5). Although our risk ratio estimates are somewhat smaller, and the CIs exclude a doubling in mortality risk with one- to five-fold CK-MB elevations, any enzyme release post-PCI does seem to affect prognosis. The level of post-PCI CK-MB elevation that carries an adverse prognosis has been debated (7). Based on our findings and in concordance with the recent redefinition criteria of myocardial infarction (30), we conclude that any increase in CK-MB post-PCI is associated with a small, but significant, increase in the subsequent risk of death. Given that minor elevations are far more common than more pronounced CK-MB increases, their mortality impact may be considerable in the population of patients undergoing PCI.
We should acknowledge that our meta-analysis focuses on the importance of mostly asymptomatic elevations of CK-MB after PCI as contrasted to major symptomatic periprocedural myocardial infarctions. We have clearly documented an increasing long-term mortality risk with increasing levels of CK-MB elevation. Nevertheless, this risk would have to be weighted against the anticipated benefit of the PCI and should not lead to abandoning PCI, when this is clearly indicated. For example, the risk conferred from small CK-MB elevations may be negligible compared with the benefit obtained from revascularization in a patient with tight proximal left anterior descending stenosis with unstable angina and a positive stress test. Risks and benefits should be carefully weighted in each case. Moreover, we should caution that the observed association between CK-MB elevation and subsequent mortality risk does not necessarily prove causality for this relationship. The CK-MB elevation may indeed reflect direct myocardial damage in some cases. However, in other cases it may simply be a surrogate for more extensive disease or more vulnerable plaques, and the subsequent increased mortality may not be directly linked to the original PCI-related microinfarction. New strategies should be considered to try to minimize the risk of cardiac events and death after PCI. For example, use of platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists has recently been shown to decrease the risk of death both in the short- and long-term in patients undergoing PCI (31).
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