The quality of life of patients with coronary artery disease after percutaneous coronary interventions

Introduction:
Due to the dynamic development of interventional cardiology over the past few years, patients with coronary artery disease have the option of invasive treatment and percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Patients’ quality of life is an important measure of the effectiveness of invasive treatment, especially for chronic diseases such as coronary artery disease. The aim of the study was to evaluate the quality of life of patients with coronary artery disease after PCI, admitted in emergency and elective mode, and to determine the relationship between quality-of-life subscales and selected variables.

Material and methods:
The study used a diagnostic survey and estimation method, and a standardized SF-36v2 questionnaire was used to collect data. A group of 108 patients participated in the study. Basic descriptive statistics were analysed together with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, frequency analysis, Student’s t-test for independent samples, the Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman’s rho correlation analysis. The significance level was α = 0.05.

Results:
Respondents indicated low quality of life in the subscales of general health and vitality. The highest scores were noted in the subscales of social functioning and physical functioning. There were significant differences between groups with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) in all subscales except social functioning and pain. Patients who consumed alcohol indicated better quality of life than abstainers in all subscales, and there was a positive correlation between frequency of alcohol consumption and quality of life in all subscales. No significant differences were found between smoking among the subjects and their quality of life.

Conclusions:
Patients after PCI rated their quality of life higher in terms of social and physical health, but worse in terms of general health, pain perception, and vitality. Patients with ACS had better quality of life after PCI than patients with CCS. Among the surveyed patients, selected lifestyle elements (alcohol drinking, smoking) had a varied relationship with their quality of life, which requires further research. Further research should be conducted on the impact of other factors that potentially affect the quality of life of patients with coronary artery disease after PCI.