Early versus delayed invasive strategy in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome and concomitant congestive heart failure

Background: Although there are guidelines that recommend an early invasive strategy in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) and concomitant congestive heart failure (CHF), optimal timing of the invasive strategy remains controversial. Methods: Among 2045 patients who were admitted owing to NSTE-ACS or CHF, 300 presented with NSTE-ACS and concomitant CHF. Of the 300 patients, we enrolled 160 patients for whom coronary angiography (CAG) during their hospital stay was planned at the time of admission; 64 of these patients were classified into the early invasive group (<24 h) and 96 were classified to the delayed invasive group (≥24 h). We evaluated the primary outcome which was defined as a composite of cardiac mortality, life-threatening arrhythmia, and non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI). Results: The median time between presentation and CAG was 2 h in the early invasive group and 240 h in the delayed group. During follow-up, the primary outcome was significantly lower in the early invasive group [hazard ratio (HR), 0.52; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.30–0.87; p = 0.01]. After the adjustment of confounding factors, the primary outcome was significantly less frequent (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.23–0.78; p = 0.004) in the early invasive group compared to the delayed invasive group. Conclusions: The early invasive strategy was associated with a lower risk of the composite primary outcome in the long-term follow-up of patients with NSTE-ACS and concomitant CHF.