Objectives: The deleterious effects of psychological problems on coronary heart disease (CHD) are not satisfactorily explained. We explored influential factors associated with mortality in psycho-cardiological disease in a Chinese sample.
Methods: Of 7460 cardiac patients, we selected 132 patients with CHD and mental illness. Follow-up was conducted via telephone. We analyzed clinical characteristics, clinical outcomes, and survival.
Results: The clinical detection rate of psycho-cardiological disease in the overall patient population was 1.8%. Of these, 113 patients completed follow-up; 18 died owing to cardiovascular diseases during follow-up. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed dysphagia, limb function, self-care ability, percutaneous coronary intervention, low-density lipoprotein, total cholesterol, pro-brain natriuretic peptide and high-sensitivity (hs) troponin T had significant associations with cumulative survival. Cox regression analysis showed total cholesterol (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.765, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.001-7.641), hs troponin T (HR: 4.668, 95% CI: 1.293-16.854), and percutaneous coronary intervention (HR: 3.619, 95% CI: 1.383-9.474) were independently associated with cumulative survival.
Conclusions: The clinical detection rate of psycho-cardiological disease was far lower than expected. Normal total cholesterol and hs troponin T were associated with reduced cardiovascular disease mortality over 2 years. Percutaneous coronary intervention is a prognostic risk factor in patients with psycho-cardiological disease.
Keywords: Coronary heart disease; hs troponin T; mental illness; percutaneous coronary intervention; psycho-cardiological disease; survival.