Developing a UK registry to investigate the role of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients who activate the primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) pathway: a multicentre, feasibility study linking routinely collected electronic patient data

Objectives: To determine whether it is feasible to set up a national registry, linking routinely collected data from hospital information systems (HIS), to investigate the role of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients who activate the primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) pathway.

Design: Feasibility prospective cohort study, to establish whether: (1) consent can be implemented; (2) data linkage and extraction from multiple HIS can be achieved for >90% of consented patients; (3) local data can be successfully linked with hospital episode data (Hospital Episode Statistics, HES; Patient Episode Database for Wales, PEDW) for >90% of consented patients and (4) the proportion of patients activating the PPCI pathway who get a CMR scan is ≥10% in hospitals with dedicated CMR facilities.

Participants: Patients from four 24/7 PPCI hospitals in England and Wales (two with and two without a dedicated CMR facility) who activated the PPCI pathway and underwent an emergency coronary angiogram.

Results: Consent was successfully implemented at all hospitals (consent rates ranged from 59% to 74%) and 1670 participants were recruited. Data submission was variable: all hospitals submitted clinical data (for ≥82% of patients); only three hospitals submitted biochemistry data (for ≥98% of patients) and echocardiography data (for 34%–87% of patients); only one hospital submitted medications data (for 97% of patients). At the two CMR centres, 14% and 20% of patients received a CMR scan. Data submitted by hospitals were linked with HES and PEDW for 99% of all consented patients.

Conclusion: We successfully consented patients but obtaining individual, opt-in consent would not be feasible for a national registry. Linkage of data from HIS with hospital episode data was feasible. However, data from HIS are not uniformly available/exportable and, in centres with a dedicated CMR facility, some referrals for CMR were for research rather than clinical purposes.