Aims: We sought to determine the efficacy of enoxaparin in unselected patients with STEMI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention in clinical practice.
Methods and results: In a retrospective analysis of the prospective MITRA-plus registry we compared the outcomes of patients with primary PCI and either enoxaparin or unfractionated heparin. A total of 2,655 patients with STEMI < 12 hours were included in this analysis, 374 (14%) were treated with enoxaparin and 2,281 (86%) with unfractionated heparin. In the univariate analysis enoxaparin reduced mortality (1.6% versus 6.0%, < 0.001), fewer non-fatal reinfarctions (1.9% versus 3.8%, p = 0.05) and no significant difference in major bleeding (5.6% versus 7.2%, p = 0.2) was observed. In the multivariable propensity score analysis enoxaparin was associated with a reduction in the combined endpoint of death and non-fatal reinfarction (odds ratio 0.42; 95% CI 0.2-0.8). This advantage was observed both in subgroups without (odds ratio 0.33 95% CI 0.1-0.8) and with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors (odds ratio 0.44, 95% CI 0.2-1.0).
Conclusions: Our data suggest that in unselected patients with STEMI treated with primary PCI enoxaparin compared to unfractionated heparin reduces the combined endpoint of in-hospital death and reinfarction and does not increase severe bleeding complications.