Has the ClOpidogrel and Metoprolol in Myocardial Infarction Trial (COMMIT) of early ß-blocker use in acute coronary syndromes impacted on clinical practice in Canada? Insights from the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE).
The COMMIT/CCS-2 trial, published in 2005, demonstrated no net benefit of early ß-blocker (BB) therapy in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). We sought to assess the short-term impact of this landmark trial by comparing the use of early BB therapy in patients with a broad spectrum of ACS before and after 2005.
Using data from the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events and Canadian Registry of Acute Coronary Events, we compared the rates of BB use within the first 24 hours of presentation in the periods 1999 to 2005 and 2006 to 2008, after stratifying patients by the type of ACS (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction [STEMI] and non-ST-segment elevation ACS [NSTEACS]) and clinical presentation.
Of the 14,231 patients with ACS, 77.7% received BB therapy within 24 hours of presentation (78.5% and 77.4% in the STEMI and NSTEACS groups, respectively). The early use of BB declined in the STEMI group (80.3% to 76.7%, P = .005) but increased in the NSTEACS group (75.4% to 78.9%, P 1, and had cardiac arrest at presentation were less likely to receive early BB. Multivariable analysis showed a trend toward lower use of BB among patients with STEMI (adjusted odds ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.57-1.00, P = .055) and a trend toward more frequent BB use among patients with NSTEACS (adjusted odds ratio 1.22, 95% CI 0.96-1.55, P = .11) after 2005. The temporal trends in the early use of BB differed between patients with STEMI and patients with NSTEACS (P for interaction with period