Impact of Polyvascular Disease on Long-Term Prognosis of Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome—A Retrospective Cohort Study in Italy

<b>Background</b>: Atherothrombosis is a systemic disease that may affect one or more than one vascular bed. Data on the impact of polyvascular disease (PVD) on the long-term prognosis of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) are still scarce. Aim: To assess the prevalence of symptomatic PVD in a cohort of patients with a new episode of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and to investigate the impact of multiple vascular beds involvement on long-term outcomes. <b>Methods</b>: We analysed a nationwide, comprehensive administrative database of consecutive patients aged ≥ 40 years admitted for a new episode of ACS in Italy in 2017-2018. Patients with ACS were stratified according to the presence of peripheral artery disease (PAD) only; cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) only; PAD+CeVD; or neither (no PAD/noCeVD, i.e., ACS only). A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the impact of PAD only; CeVD only and PAD+CeVD on 5-year MACCE. <b>Results</b>: A total of 342,052 patients hospitalised with ACS were identified. Among them, 24,727 (7.2%) were patients with PAD only, 16,887 (4.9%) with CeVD only, and 5810 (1.7%) with PAD+CeVD. After adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidities, the hazard ratio (HR) for 5-year MACCE was 1.37 (95% CI: 1.35-1.40), 1.36 (95% CI: 1.33-1.39), and 1.45 (95% CI: 1.40-1.50) in patients with PAD only, CeVD only, and PAD+CeVD, respectively, compared with patients with ACS only. <b>Conclusions</b>: In patients with ACS, the involvement of a second vascular bed increases the risk of long-term outcomes; the simultaneous involvement of three vascular beds further increases the risk of long-term outcomes.