Background:

Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are part of the clinical presentation spectrum of coronary heart disease, and patients presenting with these syndromes constitute a heterogeneous population in which prognosis differs according to clinical and laboratory variables.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) who were admitted to Hospital Provincial Neuquén (HPN) coronary care unit (CCU) from 2017 to 2019.

Methods:

This was an observational, retrospective, longitudinal and single-center study of patients hospitalized in HPN CCU between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019. Data collected from the epicrisis and medical records were used. Six months after hospital discharge, a new contact was made to corroborate data on mortality after the event.

Results:

A total of 107 patients diagnosed with NSTE-ACS, with mean age of 62.2 ±-10.51 years (65.4% male gender) were included in the study. Among them, 45.8% were smokers and 46.7% had comorbidities, the most prevalent being hypertension (69.2%) and diabetes mellitus (36.4%). In 35.5% of cases, patients had a previous heart attack, 7.5% heart failure, 85% received anti-ischemic therapy, 35.5% vasodilator treatment, 70.1% required coronary angiography, 91.6% presented positive high-sensitivity troponin levels and 22.4% required coronary stent placement. The most frequent lesion corresponded to the anterior descending artery in 12.1% of patients.

Conclusions:

The most prevalent characteristics of patients with NSTE-ACS, as well as the clinical presentation and risk of in-hospital mortality, were similar to those reported by other centers.