Abstract
Background: Research on the use of newer antiplatelet agents and their outcomes from a real-world setting is scarce. Hospital length of stay (LOS) has been used as a measure for resource use and as a proxy for patient outcomes. We analyzed a large geographically diverse database from the US and compared LOS between patients on clopidogrel or prasugrel. Patients were hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: Using a large database maintained by PREMIER, Inc., we analyzed patient characteristics and LOS during the index (first) hospitalization among ACS-PCI patients treated with clopidogrel or prasugrel between July 2009 and June 2011. Observed LOS was analyzed with t-tests. A multivariate regression model with a negative binomial distribution was used to evaluate differences in LOS, adjusting for the following covariates: age, ACS type (non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction [NSTEMI], STEMI, Unstable Angina [UA]), gender, race, renal insufficiency, diabetes, anemia, heart failure, number of vessels, bleeding events, and comorbidities based on the Charlson-Deyo weighting of disease states. Results: Data were available for 75,315 patients who received clopidogrel and 9,483 patients with prasugrel. For clopidogrel and prasugrel, respectively, the observed mean LOS (SD) was 3.5 (4.4) days and 2.9 (2.4) days (P<0.0001) for the overall study population, and 4.0 (5.2) days and 3.3 (2.4) days for STEMI (P<0.0001), 3.9 (4.6) days and 2.9 (2.5) days for NSTEMI (P<0.0001), and 2.5 (2.4) days and 2.1 (1.8) days for UA (P<0.0001). The overall adjusted LOS results similarly showed statistically significantly shorter LOS for prasugrel-treated patients than clopidogrel-treated patients. Conclusion: In this study, prasugrel- treated patients had a shorter average LOS compared to clopidogrel-treated patients. After adjusting for patient demographics and clinical characteristics, the results still held. The unobserved confounder bias, however, may exist in this real-world observational database research.
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