Primary percutaneous coronary intervention and thrombolysis improve survival in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction and pre-hospital resuscitation

BackgroundPatients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) surviving pre-hospital resuscitation represent a selected subgroup of patients with a very high adverse event rate. Only few data on the outcome of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (primary PCI) and thrombolysis in such patients are available.MethodsWe analysed the Maximal Individual Therapy of Acute Myocardial Infarction (MITRA) Plus registry. 1529 survivors of pre-hospital resuscitation with STEMI were included. 593 (38.8%) of those patients did not receive early reperfusion therapy, 793 (51.9%) patients received thrombolysis and 143 (9.4%) patients received primary PCI. Hospital mortality in patients receiving primary PCI or thrombolysis was adjusted for confounding factors with a propensity score analysis.ResultsPrimary PCI as well as thrombolysis in survivors of pre-hospital resuscitation with STEMI were associated with a significant reduction of hospital mortality (OR: 0.29, 95% CI 0.17–0.50; and 0.74, 95% CI 0.54–0.99, respectively), while primary PCI was superior compared to thrombolysis (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.30–0.84).ConclusionReperfusion therapy improves mortality of patients with STEMI surviving pre-hospital resuscitation, while primary PCI seems to be more effective than thrombolysis.