Impact of Scheduled Angiographic Follow‐Up in Patients Treated With Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for ST‐Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Routine scheduled angiographic follow‐up (SAF) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been associated with a higher rate of target vessel revascularization (TVR). Its benefits are not known. SAF at 13 months after ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) was planned in the first 1,800 successfully stented patients enrolled in the Harmonizing Outcomes with RevascularIZatiON and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction (HORIZONS‐AMI) trial. We compared the outcomes of patients with and without SAF at 1 year (before SAF) and at 3 years (after SAF). There were 1,197 patients (66.5% of expected) with and 2,207 patients without SAF. Prior to SAF, the 1‐year composite rate of death or myocardial infarction (MI) was not significantly different between the 2 groups (2.7% vs. 3.9%, respectively, P = 0.06), although the rate of death was lower (0.1% vs. 2.2%, P < 0.0001), nor were there differences in the 1‐year rates of TVR, stent thrombosis or major adverse cardiac and cerebral events). At 3 years, death or MI rates were again similar between the groups (8.3% vs. 9.5%, P = 0.22), but TVR was more common in the SAF group (17.0% vs. 8.6%, P < 0.0001), due to an increase in TVR at time of SAF. In the SAF group, patients in whom TVR was performed before or after the 13‐month SAF window had markedly higher 3‐year rates of MI and stent thrombosis than patients in whom TVR was performed during SAF or not at all. In conclusion, SAF after primary PCI in STEMI is associated with doubling of the rate of revascularization without an improvement in death or MI, and therefore cannot be recommended.