these results argue for pharmacodynamic and clinical
reevaluations of the tirofiban HCl dose in the setting
of PCI.
Acknowledgment: The investigators thank Cori
Grant, MS, for expert assistance in the statistical anal-
yses for this study.
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Comparison of Treatment Outcomes in Patients >80
Years Undergoing Transradial Versus Transfemoral
Coronary Intervention
W. Peter Klinke, MD, J. David Hilton, MD, Rebecca N. Warburton, PhD,
William P. Warburton, PhD, and Ren P. Tan, MD
We assessed the effect of transradial access (vs trans-
femoral access) for percutaneous coronary interven-
tion on postprocedure length of stay and patient out-
comes (in-hospital complications and all-cause and
cardiac death at 6 and 12 months) in 225 elderly
patients (>80 years old). Raw differences between
transradial and transfemoral accesses were com-
pared, and 3 forms of propensity score analysis were
used to determine the true effect of transradial access.
After matching to adjust for baseline differences in
patient characteristics, remaining differences in out-
comes and postprocedure length of stay were small
and not statistically significant at the 95% level, but
a decrease in postprocedural length of stay of nearly
1 day was observed and likely was not due to
chance. Transradial access in patients >80 years old
undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention
should be preferred due to equivalent success rate
and safety and likely reduction in postprocedural
hospitalization. 2004 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.
(Am J Cardiol 2004;93:1282–1285)
P
ercutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is in-
creasingly used in elderly patients with coronary
artery disease. The procedure is routinely performed
according to standard methods (i.e., through the fem-
From the Victoria Heart Institute Foundation and the School of Public
Administration, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Can-
ada; and the Department of Finance and Management Science,
School of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Dr. Klinke’s address is: Victoria Heart Institute Foundation, 315-1900
Richmond Avenue, Victoria, British Columbia V8R 4R2, Canada.
E-mail: peterklinke@vhif.org. Manuscript received December 1, 2003;
revised manuscript received and accepted February 5, 2004.
1282 ©2004 by Excerpta Medica, Inc. All rights reserved. 0002-9149/04/$–see front matter
The American Journal of Cardiology Vol. 93 May 15, 2004 doi:10.1016/j.amjcard.2004.02.015