• Gennaro Sardella, Massimo Mancone, Emanuele Canali, Angelo Di Roma, Giulia Benedetti, Rocco Stio, Roberto Badagliacca, Luigi Lucisano, Luciano Agati, and Francesco Fedele.
• Department of Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Morphologic Sciences, "Sapienza" University, Policlinico "Umberto I", Rome, Italy. rino.sardella@Uniroma1.it
• Am. J. Cardiol. 2010 Sep 1; 106 (5): 624-9.

AbstractIn ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) impairment of microcirculatory function is a negative independent predictor of myocardial function recovery. In the Impact of Thrombectomy with EXPort Catheter in Infarct-Related Artery during Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI; EXPIRA) trial we found that manual thrombectomy resulted in a better myocardial reperfusion expressed by an improved procedural outcome and a decrease of infarct size compared to conventional PCI. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the early efficacy of thrombus aspiration translates into very long-term clinical benefit. We randomized 175 patients with STEMI with occlusive thrombus at baseline undergoing primary PCI to thromboaspiration with a manual device (Export Medtronic, n = 88) or standard PCI (n = 87). No differences in baseline, clinical, and angiographic preprocedural findings were observed between the 2 groups except for incidence of hypertension and cholesterol levels. After 24 months major adverse cardiac events were 13.7% versus 4.5% (p = 0.038, log-rank test) and cardiac death was 6.8% versus 0% (p = 0.012, log-rank test). A strict correlation was observed between cardiac death incidence and tissue reperfusion parameters (postprocedural myocardial blush grade and ST-segment resolution). In conclusion, manual thrombus aspiration before stenting of the infarct-related artery in selected patients with STEMI improving myocardial reperfusion significantly decrease cardiac death and major adverse cardiac events at 2 years.2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

23 keywords...

hide…