Background: There is limited information about the clinical profile and outcome on patients admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU) in Saudi Arabia is available. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate reasons for admission, clinical characteristics, outcome and predictors of outcome in CCU patients. Materials and methods: The data of 392 patients admitted to the CCU of a secondary care centre in southern region of Saudi Arabia from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017 were collected. Data that were extracted from the patients included demographics, admission diagnosis and outcome. Results: A total of 392 patients, comprising 305 (77.81%) males and 87 (22.19%) females, were admitted to the CCU. Their mean age was 64.62 ± 15.7. The most common cause of admission was acute coronary syndrome (63.3%), the majority (97.2%) of whom were above 50 years of age (Table 2). Thirty-one patients died. This figure accounted for 7.7% of all the patients admitted to the CCU and 23.4% of the patients that were fully managed in the CCU. The majority of the patients that died were those with cardiac arrest (12 out of 16). Acute coronary syndrome (p = 0.029), cardiac arrest (p = 0.000) and age greater than 50 years (p = 0.000) were associated with death in the study patients. However, cardiac arrest (p = 0.002) and age greater than 50 years (p = 0.017) were independent predictors of death in the study patients. Conclusion: The reasons for admission to the CCU were acute coronary syndrome, heart failure and cardiac arrest. Mortality among CCU patient was comparable to reports elsewhere. Cardiac arrest and age greater than 50 years were independent predictors of death.
Keywords: CCU; admission; outcome.