Strategies at patient care in acute coronary syndromes: Rationale for the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) Registry

An abundance of evidence is available from large, randomized clinical trial s supporting the efficacy of therapies for the management of patients with acute coronary syndromes. For ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (M I), a variety of databases can be used to assess how these therapies, bath pharmacologic and invasive, are being integrated into real practice. Little information is available, however, with regard to how newer treatments are actually being implemented for patients with unstable angina and nan-ST-se gment elevation MI. There are several important issues to consider in evalu ating current treatment practices for acute coronary syndromes, including l imitations of clinical trial databases, a trend toward progressive shorteni ng of length of hospital stay, and variations in the availability of resour ces among treatment centers. In response to the need for a broader database that would address the global impact of clinical management practices in a cute coronary syndromes, the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRAC E) Registry has been established. The GRACE Registry will initially collect data on patient care from a variety of treatment centers in 14 countries, the plan being to eventually enroll 10,000 patients per year. This internat ional observational database will obtain information on the complete spectr um of acute coronary syndromes, with the specific goals of describing diagn ostic and treatment strategies, determining hospital outcomes, improving qu ality of care, and developing hypotheses for future clinical research. (C) 2000 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.