Impact of chronotropic effect of cilostazol after acute myocardial infarction: insights from change in left ventricular volume and function.

BACKGROUND Cilostazol, a phosphodiesterase inhibitor, is an antiplatelet agent with positive chronotropic effect, the impact of which on left ventricular (LV) volume and function in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was evaluated in the present study. METHODS AND RESULTS In 56 patients with AMI treated with primary coronary stenting, serial echocardiographic studies within 24 h and at 6 months were performed. Patients received a conventional antiplatelet regimen either without cilostazol (group 1, n=29) or with cilostazol (group 2, n=27). At 6 months, the difference in the change in heart rate between group 1 and group 2 was statistically significant (9.9 beats/min; p=0.04). However, changes in LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) (7.1+/-8.2 vs 10.0+/-21.7 ml, p=0.60), LV ejection fraction (EF) (8.2+/-9.9 vs 9.0+/-12.6%, p=0.85) and the ratio of early mitral inflow velocity to the mitral annular velocity (E/E') (0.6+/-3.7 vs -1.7+/-3.2) were not different between the 2 groups. Cardiac event rate was similar between the 2 groups. On multivariate regression analyses, cilostazol therapy had no significant influence on the changes in LVESV, LVEF or E/E'. CONCLUSIONS In this study, the addition of cilostazol on conventional drug therapy had no adverse influence on LV remodeling or LV function after AMI.