The Difficult Evolution of Intensive Cardiac Care Units: An Overview of the BLITZ-3 Registry and Other Italian Surveys

Table 1

Clinical characteristics of the BLITZ-3 Registry population. Data are shown for the general population, for patients with ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes (ACS), non-ST-elevation ACS, acute heart failure (AHF), or other acute non-ACS, non-AHF cardiac diseases [9].

	General population; ()	ST-elevation; ACS; ()	Non-ST-elevation; ACS; ()	Acute heart; failure; ()	Other non-ACS, non-AHF; cardiac diseases; ()
Age, yrs, median (IQR)	72 (61–80)	68 (58–77)	71 (62–79)	76 (67–82)	73 (62–80)
Female gender, %	36	30	33	42	42
Previous relevant cardiac or noncardiac comorbidities, %	70	51	72	94	70
Admission to the emergency room, %	63	62	63	62	64
Direct referral to ICCU by EMS, %	4	8	2	4	3
Transthoracic echocardiography, %	78	84	82	79	72
Coronary angiography, %	35	65	50	10	13
Any PCI, %	24	59	32	1	5
Noninvasive or invasive ventilation, %	4	4	2	14	2
Pulmonary catheter, %	0.5	0.6	0.2	1	0.6
IABP, %	1	5	0.9	0.5	0.5
Ultrafiltration, %	1	0.4	0.7	3	0.7
Temporary pacing, %	4	2	0.6	0.9	8
Inotropes, intravenous, %	8	10	4	22	7
Diuretics, intravenous, %	47	35	39	93	43
Insulin, subcutaneous or intravenous, %	19	18	21	28	13
Transfusions, %	4	3	4	7	3
Major ventricular arrhythmias, %	4	6	2	4	3
High-grade AV Block, %	2	3	1	0.8	3
Fatal or nonfatal stroke, %	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.8	0.3
Heart failure or worsening, %	9	12	10	12	5
Shock or Killip IV, %	6	6	2	20	2
Cardiac arrest, %	3	5	2	4	2
Sepsis, %	0.8	0.2	0.6	2	0.7
Acute renal dysfunction, %	11	13	11	18	8
Length of stay in ICCU, median (IQR)	4 (2–5)	4 (3–5)	4 (3–6)	4 (3–6)	3 (2–4)
In-ICCU crude global mortality	3.3	5.1	2	5.4	2.6

IQR: interquartile range; ICCU: Intensive Cardiac Care Unit; EMS: Emergency Medical Services; PCI: percutaneous coronary intervention; IABP: intra-aortic balloon pump; AV: atrioventricular.