Benefit of Thrombolytic Therapy Is Sustained Throughout Five Years and Is Related to TIMI Perfusion Grade 3 But Not Grade 2 Flow at Discharge

BACKGROUND: Long-term follow-up in patients treated with thrombolysis for acute myocardial infarction thus far has been reported in a few studies only, and no long-term follow-up is available for patients who underwent additional percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). This report describes 5-year survival as collected in patients who received placebo, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rTPA), or rTPA with additional immediate PTCA in two European Cooperative Study Group trials. Determinants for long-term survival were assessed in 1043 patients discharged alive. METHODS AND RESULTS: Five-year follow-up information on mortality was collected. Hospital mortality was lower after rTPA than placebo (2.5% versus 5.7%, P = .04) and higher after rTPA with immediate PTCA compared with rTPA without additional intervention (6.0% versus 2.2%, P = .07). Of the 1043 hospital survivors, data were available for 923 patients, of whom 109 died. In the placebo group, mortality after hospital discharge was 10.7% versus 11.0% in the comparative rTPA group. The patients treated with rTPA and immediate PTCA had a mortality rate of 10.5% versus 8.9% in the rTPA group without PTCA (all P = NS). Significant determinants of mortality in multivariate proportional hazards analysis were enzymatic infarct size, indicators of residual left ventricular function, number of diseased vessels and TIMI perfusion grade at discharge. Patients with TIMI grade 2 flow had mortality rates similar to those with TIMI flow grades 0 and 1, while prognosis was better in patients with TIMI flow grade 3. CONCLUSIONS: The initial in-hospital benefit of thrombolysis with intravenous rTPA is maintained throughout 5 years, with no early or late beneficial effect of systematic immediate PTCA. Enzymatic infarct size, left ventricular function, and extent of coronary artery disease are predictors for long-term survival. TIMI perfusion grade 2 at discharge should be considered as an inadequate result of therapy.