THE PREDICTIVE UTILITY OF GRACE SCORE FOR OBSTRUCTIVE CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE IN PATIENTS WITH NON ST ELEVATION MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the predictive value of GRACE score for predicting obstructive coronary artery disease in patients with non ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the largest public sector cardiac care center of the Pakistan between January 2020 and June 2020. In this study, we included adult patients diagnosed with NSTEMI and correlation of GRACE score was assessed with angiographic finding of obstructive CAD defined as ≥50% stenosis in the left main or ≥70% stenosis in other coronary arteries. Results: A total of 227 patients were included in this study, out of whom 72.2% (164) were male patients and mean age was 55.77 ± 9.15 years. Mean GRACE score was found to be 95.89 ± 21.15. On coronary angiography obstructive CAD was present in 84.6% (192) of the patients. Area under the cure for predicting obstructive CAD was 0.669 [0.552 to 0.785]. The optimal cutoff value of GRACE score was ≥ 84 with sensitivity of 79.7% [73.3% to 85.1%] and specificity of 57.1% [39.3% to 73.7%]. GRACE score of ≥ 84 was found to be an independent predictor of obstructive CAD with odds ratio of 4.33 [1.61 - 11.64; p=0.004] adjusted for gender, age, hypertension, diabetes, family history of CAD, and smoking. Conclusion: GRACE score has a moderate predictive value in predicting obstructive CAD in patients with NSTEMI. The optimal cutoff value of 84 is an independent predictor with good sensitivity but moderate specificity in predicting obstructive CAD.