Profile of patients treated with thrombus aspiration catheters during primary percutaneous coronary intervention

ABSTRACT Background The benefits of using thrombus aspiration catheters during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), to obtain better coronary flow and myocardial perfusion and reducing late mortality are established in the literature. However, in the clinical practice it does not seem to be used for all patients. We tried to determine what clinical and angiographic variables have led to the indication of these devices in primary PCI at our institution. Methods From August 2006 to November 2010, 558 patients were consecutively submitted to primary PCI. Thrombus aspiration catheters were used in 79 patients (group 1), who were compared to 479 patients who did not use these devices (group 2). Results Group 1 showed a prevalence of males, smokers, large acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) and thrombotic lesions. The use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, direct stenting and larger diameter stents and the presence of transient coronary flow disturbances were also more frequent in group 1. Procedure success rate was high (93.7% vs. 92.3%; P = 0.4) and it was similar between groups. At hospital discharge, the incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (6.3% vs. 6.5%; P = 0.6), death (5.1% vs. 3.8%; P = 0.58), stroke (1.3% vs. 0.4%; P = 0.09), reinfarction (0 vs. 2.3%; P = 0.17) was not different between groups. Conclusions Thrombus aspiration catheters have been used in 15% of primary PCIs, usually in AMIs with greater extension and thrombotic burden. Despite the more severe clinical-angiographic profile of these patients the success rate is high and similar to that of low-risk patients.