Six-month clinical and angiographic follow-up after direct angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction. Final results from the Primary Angioplasty Registry.

BACKGROUND: After direct angioplasty in the setting of acute myocardial infarction, patients were followed clinically and angiographically for 6 months at six experienced centers to evaluate outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Of 258 patients with 6-month follow-up after surviving initial hospitalization, 5 (2%) died, 8 (3%) had nonfatal infarctions, 56 (22%) had chest pain, of whom 25 (10%) required hospitalization, and 42 (16%) patients needed repeat angioplasty. Of 203 eligible patients, 154 (76%) had angiographic follow-up. The infarct-related artery remained patent (defined as TIMI 2 or 3 flow) in 87%, while 13% developed reocclusion (TIMI 0 or 1 flow) by 6 months after discharge. Patients with reocclusion were more likely to have adverse events, including 35% with clinically evident reinfarction and 59% requiring repeat angioplasty. The median ejection fraction improvement from acute to follow-up study was 6%, with no improvement in patients with a reoccluded infarct-related artery and an 8% improvement in patients with a patent infarct-related artery. CONCLUSIONS: The positive clinical outcomes recorded immediately after direct angioplasty persisted through 6 months of follow-up. Although the incidence of clinical end points was equivalent to or lower than thrombolytic therapy trials, restenosis is a substantial problem. These findings provide evidence beyond the initial hospitalization that direct angioplasty is a reasonable choice for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction.