Three-year duration of benefit from abciximab in patients receiving stents for acute myocardial infarction in the randomized double-blind ADMIRAL study

AIMS: The Abciximab Before Direct Angioplasty and Stenting in Myocardial Infarction Regarding Acute and Long-term Follow-up (ADMIRAL) study demonstrated that early inhibition of the platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GP IIb/IIIa) receptor with abciximab led to improved coronary patency, left ventricular function, and clinical outcomes. The current long-term follow-up study evaluated the durability of the positive outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS: The randomized double-blind ADMIRAL trial enrolled 300 patients who received either abciximab plus stenting or placebo plus stenting for the treatment of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Abciximab (bolus of 0.25 mg/kg body weight, followed by 12 h infusion of 0.125 microg/kg per min) was administered to 149 patients, whereas 151 patients received placebo. Long-term follow-up was conducted in a blinded manner by either patient chart review or telephone interview. Long-term follow-up data were obtained on 288 patients (96%). After 3 years, using an intent-to-treat analysis, the outcome of all-cause mortality occurred in 9.1% of abciximab-treated patients when compared with 12.2% of placebo patients, absolute and relative risk reductions of 3.1 and 25%, respectively (P=0.36). Parallel Kaplan-Meier curves were observed for the cumulative incidence of death or re-infarction, which was reduced from 16.9% in the placebo group to 11.8% in the abciximab group, absolute and relative risk reductions of 5.1 and 30%, respectively (P=0.20). Rates of recurrent ischaemia were significantly reduced from 21.7 to 11.5% (P=0.05). CONCLUSION: Adjunctive abciximab to primary stenting for STEMI elicits favourable clinical outcomes with the same absolute risk reductions of hard clinical outcomes from 30 days up to 3 years of follow-up.