Blood Transfusion Strategy in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

In previous large randomized trials, restrictive transfusion strategies benefited patients with anemia, but those trials excluded patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). In this study, researchers randomized 668 adults who were hospitalized in 35 French or Spanish centers with acute MI and hemoglobin (Hb) levels between 7 and 10 g/dL to either a restrictive transfusion strategy (triggered by Hb ≤8 g/dL) or a liberal strategy (triggered by Hb ≤10 g/dL).

At 30 days, major adverse cardiac events (i.e., all-cause death, stroke, recurrent MI, or emergency revascularization) had occurred in 11% of patients in the restrictive group and 14% in the liberal group. Although no statistically significant difference was found between the two group…