We think we see a pattern emerging here.

For more than 30 years, the quest for interventions that can preserve viability in ischemic myocardium has been ongoing. The search began with the pioneering studies of Maroko and colleagues in the 1970s.1 Although reperfusion therapy has emerged as a great success story, we are still on a quest for an intervention that can preserve viability until blood flow can be restored in the setting of acute myocardial infarction. This field has progressed along 3 distinct lines.