Relationship between therapeutic time intervals and intermediate term left ventricular systolic function in patients treated with facilitated percutaneous coronary intervention for acute myocardial infarction

Background The concept of initiating fibrinolytic therapy in patients who cannot undergo immediate percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the setting of acute ST-segmentelevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has been proposed as a strategy to improve outcomes. However, evidence supporting the use of this strategy is not conclusive, and the results of recent randomized controlled trials are apparently contradictory. Probably, the time points of administration of the adjunctive thrombolytics and antiplatelet agents and the time loss until coronary intervention have a major influence on the discrepancy of outcomes in different trials. Therefore, the relationship between therapeutic time intervals and outcome in patients treated with facilitated PCI has been analyzed.