Aims: Early and complete reperfusion is the main treatment goal in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The timely optimal reperfusion strategy might be a pre-hospital initiated pharmacological reperfusion with subsequent facilitated percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This approach has been compared with pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis only to determine whether either one of these methods offer advantages with respect to final infarct size.
Methods and results: Patients with STEMI were randomized to either pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis (half-dose reteplase+abciximab) with standard care (n=82) or pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis with facilitated PCI (n=82). Primary endpoint was the infarct size assessed by delayed enhancement magnetic resonance. Secondary endpoints were ST-segment resolution at 90 min and a composite of death, re-myocardial infarction, major bleeding, and stroke at 6 months. The infarct size was lower after facilitated PCI with 5.2% [interquartile range (IQR) 1.3-11.2] as opposed to 10.4% (IQR 3.4-16.3) after pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis (P=0.001). Complete ST-segment resolution was 80.0% after facilitated PCI vs. 51.9% after pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis (P<0.001). After facilitated PCI, there was a trend towards a lower event rate in the combined clinical endpoint (15 vs. 25%, P=0.10, relative risk 0.57, 95% CI 0.28-1.13).
Conclusion: In patients with STEMI, additional facilitated PCI after pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis results in an improved tissue perfusion with subsequent smaller infarct size as opposed to pre-hospital combination-fibrinolysis alone. This translates into a trend towards a better clinical outcome.