ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: In patients who have undergone interventional cardiac procedures, the risk of bleeding is higher than in patients who received conservative treatment due to multiple medications and comorbidities. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the age, creatinine and ejection fraction (ACEF) score for predicting bleeding events and to compare short- and long-term clinical outcomes according to the ACEF score in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) with bail-out tirofiban therapy (BOTT). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 2,543 patients were included and divided into three groups according to the following ACEF score tertiles: T1 (ACEFlow ≤ 1.033), T2 (1.033 < ACEFmid ≤ 1.371), and T3 (ACEFhigh > 1.371). The main outcomes measured were the incidence rates of relevant bleeding events and mortality within 30 days and 3 years after the procedure. RESULTS: A total of 73 (2.9%) patients had Bleeding Academic Research Consortium bleeding events of grades 3, 4 or 5 and 104 (4%) patients died in a 30-day period. The ACEF score was effective at predicting 30-day bleeding (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC): 0.658, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.579-0.737; p < 0.001), 30-day mortality (AUC = 0.701, 95% CI: 0.649-0.753; p < 0.001) and 3-year mortality (AUC = 0.778, 95% CI: 0.748-0.807; p < 0.001) events. Considering the ACEF score tertiles, T3 patients presented greater 30-day bleeding (1.6%, 2.8% and 4.1%; odds ratio (OR) = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.37-4.80), 30-day mortality (1.7%, 3.5% and 7.1%; OR = 4.53, 95% CI: 2.51-8.18) and 3-year mortality (6.4%, 11% and 19.8%; hazard ratio = 3.56, 95% CI: 2.58-4.91) risks. CONCLUSIONS: The ACEF score is a user-friendly tool with excellent predictive value for bleeding events and mortality in patients undergoing pPCI with BOTT.