Prevalence, clinical characteristics and factors predicting major cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery ectasia

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is an uncommon angiographic finding associated with the occurrence of severe cardiovascular outcomes during the long term. However, the factors that predict major adverse cardiovascular events after the diagnosis of CAE are not well understood. Purpose To define the prevalence, clinical characteristics and factors predicting major cardiovascular events in a large series of patients with coronary artery ectasia. Methods Retrospective, observational, cohort study of patients who underwent coronary angiography between April 2018 and April 2021 at a national cardiovascular center in Latin America. CAE was defined as segmental dilation of a coronary artery with caliber discrepancy 1.5 greater compared to an adjacent segment. Baseline clinical variables were assessed during index hospital stay. The primary outcome of the study was the composite of cardiovascular death, acute myocardial infarction and angina. Results Among 4,435 patients undergoing coronary angiography during the study period, 298 (6.73%) were diagnosed with CAE and constituted the final analytic sample. The main reason for performing coronary angiography was ACS (78%). Patients were mostly male (87.1%), and the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was high. During a median follow up of 17 months (1-151), 31 (12.0%) patients developed at least one component of the primary endpoint (Figure 1.) Bivariate analysis identified chronic kidney disease (CKD) (p=0.006) and initial presentation in the form of ACS (p