Early reperfusion and late clinical outcomes in patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction randomly assigned to primary percutaneous coronary intervention or streptokinase.

Background: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has become an alternative to thrombolytic therapy as a reperfusion strategy for ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: The main goal of this study was to determine whether PCI and thrombolytic therapy achieve comparable reperfusion rates, as evidenced by ST-segment resolution. Secondary end points included infarct vessel patency rates before hospital discharge and short- and long-term outcomes.