Study design and baseline characteristics of the national observational study of diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization by the French Society of Cardiology.

The national observational study of diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization (ONACI) is a prospective multicenter registry of the French Society of Cardiology including all interventional cardiology procedures performed from 2004. We aimed to evaluate "real-world" management of patients with coronary artery disease in France from this registry. The present study was focused on data collected from 2004 to 2008. Patient demographics and co-morbidities, invasive parameters, treatment options, and procedural techniques were prospectively collected. Patients were recruited from 99 hospitals (55% of patients were hospitalized in private clinics and 45% in public institutions). During a 5-year period, a total of 298,105 patients underwent coronary angiography and 176,166 patients underwent percutaneous coronary intervention. Diagnosis was acute coronary syndrome in 22%, stable angina or silent ischemia in 23%, and atypical chest pain in 9% of cases. Normal coronary arteries or nonsignificant coronary narrowing were found in 26% of patients. Radial access was increasingly used over the years regardless of the indication. The average number of percutaneous coronary interventions per procedure was 1.5 ± 0.7 (range, 1.3 ± 0.7 to 1.5 ± 0.7) and that of stents per procedure was 1.5 ± 0.8 (range, 1.5 ± 0.8 to 1.6 ± 0.8). Drug-eluting stents were used in 45% (range, 34% to 62%), increasing from 2004 to 2006, and then decreasing after the 2006 controversy. In conclusion, ONACI is one of the largest catheterization registries during this period, providing a detailed and comprehensive global description of the spectrum and management of patients with suspected coronary artery disease undergoing cardiac catheterization.