We sought to assess the clinical efficacy of thrombus aspiration during primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS). We retrospectively selected 44 patients with CS out of a population of 842 STEMI patients treated with primary PCI at our Hospital between March 2003 and October 2007. Twenty-six patients died during hospital stay (59.1%, Group 1), whereas the remaining 18 were discharged (40.9%, Group 2). Post-procedural ST-segment resolution was greater (68.0%+/-35.6 vs. 43.0%+/-35.0; p=0.06) and in-hospital mortality was significantly lower (21.4% vs 76.6%; p<0.01) in patients treated by TA as compared to patients undergoing standard PCI. At multivariate logistic regression analysis, TA was the only variable independently associated with survival.
Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.