Every minute counts: in-hospital changes of left ventricular regional and global function in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: The aim of our study was to assess the effects of an early percutaneous coronary intervention on changes of in-hospital left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and wall motion score index (WMSI) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. METHODS: The study population consisted of 324 consecutive patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, divided into two groups, according to the first medical contact (FMC)-to-reperfusion time, respectively, 90 min or less (n = 173) and more than 90 min (n = 151). Moreover, we performed a sub-analysis in the group of patients who showed at discharge an improvement in the LVEF of at least 10%. RESULTS: In both groups at baseline, patients suffered from a moderately reduced LVEF (40.88 ±â€Š8.38% in ≤90 min group vs. 40.70 ±â€Š8.98% in >90 min group; P = 0.858). A WMSI of more than 1 was recorded uniformly 1.71 ±â€Š0.37 in patients with FMC-to-reperfusion 90 min or less and 1.72 ±â€Š0.38 in patients more than 90 min (P = 0.810). At the time of discharge, a significant improvement in LVEF (43.82 ±â€Š8.38%, P = 0.001) and WMSI (1.60 ±â€Š0.41, P = 0.009) exclusively emerged in the 90 min or less group. Furthermore, we identified 105 patients who experienced an improvement in the LVEF of at least 10% compared with baseline values. In these patients FMC-to-reperfusion and total ischemic time resulted as significantly shorter, when compared with patients with LVEF improvement of less than 10%. CONCLUSION: Our study confirms and reinforces the concept that reducing the duration of the time between FMC and reperfusion, as well as the total ischemic time influences a positive recovery of left ventricular global and regional function during in-hospital stay.