Thrombus-Aspirating Catheters Lower Cardiac Death and Reinfarction 1 Year After PCI

Editorialists predict that these catheters likely will be incorporated rapidly into routine care of patients with acute MIs.

During percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), thrombus material often embolizes into the distal vasculature, which compromises reperfusion. Aspiration of thrombus material before balloon dilatation and stenting improves myocardial reperfusion, but data on clinical outcomes have been inconclusive. With funding from the manufacturer of an aspiration catheter, researchers in Germany randomized 1071 patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarctions to either conventional PCI alone or to thrombus aspiration before dilatation and stenting.

At 1 year, the aspiration group had significantly fewer cardiac deaths (3.6% vs. 6.7%) and a significantly lower incidence of cardiac-related death or nonfatal reinfarction (5.6% vs. 9.9%) than did th…

Reviewing Author

Bruce Soloway, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsNew RoAR News (http://www.newroarnews.org)

Bruce Soloway, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsNew RoAR News (http://www.newroarnews.org)