Impact of treatment delay on mortality in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients presenting with and without haemodynamic instability: results from the German prospective, multicentre FITT-STEMI trial.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of contact-to-balloon time on mortality in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients with and without haemodynamic instability. Methods and results: Using data from the prospective, multicentre Feedback Intervention and Treatment Times in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (FITT-STEMI) trial, we assessed the prognostic relevance of first medical contact-to-balloon time in n = 12 675 STEMI patients who used emergency medical service transportation and were treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Patients were stratified by cardiogenic shock (CS) and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). For patients treated within 60 to 180 min from the first medical contact, we found a nearly linear relationship between contact-to-balloon times and mortality in all four STEMI groups. In CS patients with no OHCA, every 10-min treatment delay resulted in 3.31 additional deaths in 100 PCI-treated patients. This treatment delay-related increase in mortality was significantly higher as compared to the two groups of OHCA patients with shock (2.09) and without shock (1.34), as well as to haemodynamically stable patients (0.34, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: In patients with CS, the time elapsing from the first medical contact to primary PCI is a strong predictor of an adverse outcome. This patient group benefitted most from immediate PCI treatment, hence special efforts to shorten contact-to-balloon time should be applied in particular to these high-risk STEMI patients. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT00794001.

Prognostic significance of emergency department bypass in stable and unstable patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: In ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention, direct transport from the scene to the catheterisation laboratory bypassing the emergency department has been shown to shorten times to reperfusion. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of emergency department bypass on mortality in both haemodynamically stable and unstable STEMI patients. METHODS: The analysis is based on a large cohort of STEMI patients prospectively included in the German multicentre Feedback Intervention and Treatment Times in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (FITT-STEMI) trial. RESULTS: Out of 13,219 STEMI patients who were brought directly from the scene by emergency medical service transportation and were treated with percutaneous coronary intervention, the majority were transported directly to the catheterisation laboratory bypassing the emergency department (n=6740, 51% with emergency department bypass). These patients had a significantly lower in-hospital mortality than their counterparts with no emergency department bypass (6.2% vs. 10.0%, P<0.0001). The reduced mortality related to emergency department bypass was observed in both stable (n=11,594, 2.8% vs. 3.8%, P=0.0024) and unstable patients presenting with cardiogenic shock (n=1625, 36.3% vs. 46.2%, P<0.0001). Regression models adjusted for the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score consistently confirmed a significant and independent predictive effect of emergency department bypass on survival in the total study population (odds ratio 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.74, P<0.0001) and in the subgroup of shock patients (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.54-0.88, P=0.0028). CONCLUSION: In STEMI patients, emergency department bypass is associated with a significant reduction in mortality, which is most pronounced in patients presenting with cardiogenic shock. Our data encourage treatment protocols for emergency department bypass to improve the survival of both haemodynamically stable patients and, in particular, unstable patients. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT00794001 ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00794001.

In-Hospital Outcome of Patients with Diabetes Mellitus after CTO Recanalization with Third-Generation Drug-Eluting Stents.

Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of total chronic coronary occlusions (CTOs) still remains a major challenge in interventional cardiology. There is little knowledge in the literature about differences in CTO-PCI between diabetic and nondiabetic patients in the era of third-generation drug-eluting stents (DESs). In this study, we analyzed the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) on procedural characteristics, complications, and acute outcomes in a cohort of 440 patients. Methods: Between 2012 and 2016, we recruited 440 consecutive patients, 116 of them with DM. All the patients underwent PCI for at least 1 CTO. Antegrade and retrograde CTO recanalization techniques were applied. Only third-generation DESs were used. We used t-tests and the Pearson chi-quadrat test to test the significant differences in the variables between the 2 groups. Results: The patients with DM were older than the nondiabetics (64.5 y vs. 61.1 y; P=0.003), and they suffered more frequently from a chronic kidney disease (7.1% vs. 2.4%; P=0.001). The nondiabetics less frequently had arterial hypertension (75.3% vs. 89.7%; P=0.001); however, they more often had a family liability for CAD (32.1% vs. 22.4%; P=0.050) and had a higher left ventricular ejection fraction (59.2% vs. 56.7%; P=0.011). The success rate was 85.2% in the patients without DM and 81.2% in the patients with DM (P=0.403). The existence of DM had no impact on the procedural success and complication rates. Conclusion: Our study on 440 patients shows that diabetics and nondiabetics have similar success and complication rates after the recanalization of CTOs using third-generation DESs. It is a feasible and safe procedure and can be recommended as an alternative treatment.