Restoration of microcirculatory patency after myocardial infarction: results of current coronary interventional strategies and techniques.

We sought to evaluate the restoration of microcirculatory patency after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in an unselected cohort of patients at a tertiary center.We retrospectively evaluated distributions of the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) and the myocardial blush grade (MBG) in all primary PCI procedures performed at our institution during 2008. We defined optimal microvascular perfusion as simultaneous TMPG 3 and MBG 3 at procedure's end.

Sirolimus-eluting stents versus bare-metal stents in routine clinical use: a nonrandomized comparison.

Conflicting patient outcomes have been reported after the use of sirolimus-eluting stents or bare-metal stents. In this nonrandomized study, we examine the outcomes after placement of sirolimus-eluting versus bare-metal stents in an unselected population of patients who underwent percutaneous coronary revascularization.We used THIRD-base, a longitudinal data registry of patients who underwent revascularization at our institution, to compare demographics and outcomes in patients treated with a sirolimus-eluting or bare-metal stent from January 2001 through June 2006.