BACKGROUND ST-elevation myocardial infarction is caused by occlusive coronary thrombosis where antecedent plaque disruption occurs. When treating STEMI the main goal is to achieve prompt reperfusion of the infarction area. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of an aspiration device before percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with acute myocardial infarction. OBJECTIVES To...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this work was to determine whether rheolytic thrombectomy (RT) as an adjunct to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) reduces infarction size and improves myocardial perfusion during treatment of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). BACKGROUND Primary PCI for STEMI achieves brisk epicardial flow in most patients, but myocardial perfusion often ...

Ventricular free wall rupture (VFWR) is the second most common cause of death in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Nevertheless, few reports have investigated the factors, including different treatment strategies, associated with VFWR in Taiwanese patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the risk of VFWR in Taiwanese patients with acute STEMI who h...

A uniform policy for regionalization of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) care raises several concerns. Transferring all STEMI patients to obtain primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may be less effective than transferring only high-risk STEMI patients. Delays in time to treatment >60 min associated with transferring patients for primary PCI may result in increased ...

AIMS Adjunctive therapy with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors has been shown to reduce ischaemic complications and improve clinical outcome in patients with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute ST elevation myocardial infarction. Little is known about the use of eptifibatide in this setting. METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred and two patients with ST elevation myocardial in...

BACKGROUND Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an important treatment option for patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). Although an inverse association between a hospital's PCI volume and in-hospital mortality has been observed in Western studies, previous Japanese investigations have not found any such relationship. METHODS AND RESULTS A retrospective analysis of 8,3...

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction Early reperfusion of an infarct-related artery in acute STEMI improves survival. Primary PCI is the preferred reperfusion strategy in STEMI if it can be performed rapidly and by experienced operators [1,2]. In an ideal world, all patients with STEMI would be offered immediate primary PCI given its superiori...

OBJECTIVES We sought to evaluate the incidence, predictors, and outcomes of ventricular tachycardia and/or ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) in the cardiac catheterization laboratory among patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). BACKGROUND Although VT/VF has been known to occur during primary PCI, the current data do not identify patients at risk for these arrhyth...

Reperfusion therapy has represented a great leap forward in the management of myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. Its goal is early and complete recanalization of the infarct-related artery to salvage myocardium and improve both early and late clinical outcomes. Complete reperfusion can be achieved with either fibrinolysis or primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), but wi...