Background: Limited data are available on sex differences in the time to treatment of cardiogenic shock (CS) with and without acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
Methods: For this retrospective cohort study, we used nationally representative hospital survey data from the National Inpatient Sample (years 2016-2021) to assess sex differences in interventions, time to treatment (within versus after 24 hours of admission), and in-hospital mortality for AMI-CS and non-AMI-CS, adjusting for age, race, income, insurance, comorbidities, and prior cardiac interventions.
Results: We identified 1,052,360 weighted CS hospitalizations (60% non-AMI-CS; 40% AMI-CS). Women with CS had significantly lower rates of all interventions. For AMI-CS, women had a higher likelihood of in-hospital mortality after: revascularization (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.15 [95% CI 1.09-1.22]), mechanical circulatory support (MCS) (1.15 [1.08-1.22]), right heart catheterization (RHC) (1.10 [1.02-1.19]) (all p<0.001). Similar trends were found for the non-AMI-CS group. Women with AMI-CS were less likely to receive early (within 24 hours of admission) revascularization (0.93 [0.89-0.96]), MCS (0.76 [0.73-0.80]), or RHC (0.89 [0.84-0.95]) than men; women with non-AMI-CS were less likely to receive early revascularization (0.78 [0.73-0.84]), IABP (0.85 [0.78-0.94]), pLVAD (0.88 [0.77-0.99]) or RHC (0.83 [0.79-0.88]) than men (all p<0.001). For both types of CS, in-hospital mortality was not significantly different between men and women receiving early ECMO, pLVAD, or PCI.
Conclusions: Sex disparities in the frequency of treatment of CS persist on a national scale, with women being more likely to die following treatment and less likely to receive early treatment. However, when comparing patients who received early treatment, in-hospital mortality does not differ significantly when men and women are treated equally within 24 hours of admission. Early intervention if clinically indicated could mitigate sex-based differences in CS outcomes and should be made a priority in the management of CS.