Long-term clinical outcomes after rescue angioplasty are not different from those of successful thrombolysis for acute myocardial infarction.

AIMS: The long-term value of rescue percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction who received thrombolytic therapy but failed to achieve early recanalization of the artery is still debated. This study aimed to compare long-term outcomes after successful thrombolysis vs. systematic attempted rescue PTCA. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 362 consecutive patients with STEMI hospitalized within 6 h of symptom onset and treated with intravenous thrombolytic therapy were studied. Of these, 345 underwent coronary angiography within 90 min. Sixty per cent of patients achieved TIMI 3 flow and were treated medically; the in-hospital death rate in this group was 4%. Nine per cent of patients had TIMI 2 flow and 31% TIMI 0-1 flow. In this latter group, rescue PTCA was attempted in 85.8% with a hospital death rate of 5.5% (20% with failed vs. 4% with successful rescue PTCA, P=0.03). Eight year actuarial survival without recurrent myocardial infarction was no different in patients who had successful thrombolytic therapy and in patients with attempted rescue PTCA [78 and 95% CI (71-85) vs. 78 and 95% CI (68-87), respectively, hazard ratio: 0.93 (0.52-1.65), P=0.80]. Total mortality, cardiac mortality, and other composite endpoints also did not differ between groups. CONCLUSION: Routine attempted rescue PTCA 90 min after thrombolytic therapy in patients with persistent occlusion of the infarct-related vessels achieves long-term clinical outcomes which do not differ from those obtained by successful thrombolysis.