A comparison of rescue and primary percutaneous coronary interventions for acute myocardial infarction: a multicenter registry report of 9,371 patients

OBJECTIVETo perform a comparative analysis of in-hospital results obtained from AMI patients who underwent rescue or primary PTCA.METHODSFrom the Brazilian Interventional National Registry (CENIC), we selected all consecutive patients who underwent a percutaneous coronary intervention for myocardial infarction (< 24 hours), between 1997 and 2000, analyzing those undergoing a rescue (n=840) or a primary (n=8,531) procedure, and comparing their in-hospital results.RESULTSRescue patients were significantly younger males with anterior wall infarctions, associated with left ventricular dysfunction, but had less multivessel disease, compared with those treated with primary intervention. Coronary stents were implanted in at similar rates (56.9% vs. 54.9%; P=0.283). Procedural success were lower for rescue cases (88.1% vs. 91.2%; P