473. ACS Guidelines Question #11 with Dr. Venu Menon

This episode is part of our comprehensive Decipher the Guidelines Series covering the 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes.

The following question refers to Section 8.2 of the 2025 ACS Guidelines.

The question is asked by Johns Hopkins pre-medical undergraduate and CardioNerds Academy Intern Joshua Khorsandi, answered first by University of Wisconsin cardiology fellow and member of the CardioNerds Interventional Cardiology Council Dr. Shikha Jha, and then by expert faculty Dr. Venu Menon.

Dr. Menon is the Section Head of Clinical Cardiology, Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, and Program Director of Cardiology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. He is the Mehdi Razavi Endowed Chair and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He was also a member of the 2025 ACS Guidelines writing committee.

Question #11

A 58-year-old man with a past medical history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, schizophrenia, atrial fibrillation (on apixaban), and prior tobacco use presents to the emergency department with chest tightness. ECG shows ST elevations in leads II, III, and aVF with reciprocal depressions in leads I and aVL. Emergency coronary angiography demonstrates 100% occlusion of the proximal RCA, and he undergoes PCI. Transthoracic echocardiogram afterward reveals normal LV function with inferior hypokinesis. On day 2, the patient experienced lightheadedness and has frequent melanic stools. His hemoglobin returns at 6 gm/dL (initial hemoglobin 11 g/dL). He undergoes EGD and colonoscopy with successful endoscopic treatment of a small gastric ulcer.

True or False: it is reasonable to administer 3-4 units of packed red blood cells for a goal Hb ≥ 10 g/dL.

True

False

Answer #11

Explanation

The correct answer is True – it would be reasonable to administer 3-4 units of packed red blood cells for a goal Hb ≥ 10 g/dL.

Anemia is common in patients with ACS and is associated with worse short- and long-term outcomes. Anemia is associated with adverse outcomes irrespective of whether the anemia is chronic and due to comorbid conditions, or acute and the result of bleeding related to antithrombotic therapy and/or invasive procedures. The adverse effects of anemia may be due to decreased myocardial oxygen delivery, increased myocardial oxygen demand due to increased cardiac output, or the avoidance of potentially beneficial antithrombotic drugs and/or procedures. Randomized trials in medically ill patients and those undergoing cardiac surgery have demonstrated similar or better outcomes with a restrictive transfusion strategy (targeting a blood hemoglobin level around 8 g/dL) than with a liberal transfusion strategy (targeting a blood hemoglobin level around 10 g/dL). However, randomized trial evidence for populations with ACS suggests possible clinical benefit for a more liberal transfusion strategy targeting a hemoglobin level above 10 g/dL compared with targeting a hemoglobin level above 7 g/dL to 8 g/dL

The MINT (Myocardial Ischemia and Transfusion) trial randomly assigned 3,504 patients with acute STEMI or NSTEMI and anemia with a blood hemoglobin level of <10 g/dL (13% with recent bleeding) to a restrictive transfusion strategy (transfusing if the hemoglobin level was <7-8 g/dL) or a liberal transfusion strategy (transfusing if the hemoglobin level was <10 g/dL). Patients were ineligible for enrollment if they had uncontrolled bleeding, were receiving palliative treatment, or were scheduled to have cardiac surgery. Transfusion could be delayed for patients with volume overload or until the day of dialysis in patients with end-stage renal disease. The primary outcome of 30-day death or recurrent MI occurred in 16.9% of patients in the restrictive strategy and 14.5% of patients in the liberal strategy (relative risk, 1.15 [95% CI, 0.99-1.34]; P = 0.07). Death occurred in 9.9% of patients in the restrictive strategy and 8.3%