Acute coronary syndromes in the united states and united kingdom: A comparison of approaches

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Abstract
Background: Patients with coronary artery disease are managed differently in different countries. Hypothesis: These variations in patient management may affect clinical outcome, a possibility that should be taken into consideration in multicenter studies. Methods: In a binational, 3 months study of antithrombotic treatment of patients with unstable angina and non‐Q‐wave infarction (ATACS), we compared the experience in the four enrollment centers in the United States (US) with the three centers in the United Kingdom (UK). The 59 US patients and the 299 UK patients were similar with regard to age, rates of prior revascularization, prior positive exercise tests, medication use, and aspirin use. Results: US patients were more commonly women (45 vs. 28%), diabetic (30 vs. 4%), or hypertensive (52 vs. 31%), and had a prior coronary angiogram (30 vs. 18%). After enrollment, coronary angiography was performed more frequently in the US than in the UK (61 vs. 22%). Although the distribution of coronary disease was similar, revascularization without recurrent angina (19 vs. 4%, pConclusion: Therefore, international studies of acute coronary disease need to account for different treatments in different countries. These differences, in the small ATACS study, did not have a major impact on the composite primary outcome variables.

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