Background: Adjunctive unfractionated heparin (UFH) during thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) promotes the speed and magnitude of coronary artery recanalization and reduces reocclusion. Low-molecular-weight heparins offer practical and potential pharmacological advantages over UFH in multiple applications but have not been systematically studied as adjuncts to fibrinolysis in AMI.
Methods And Results: Four hundred patients undergoing reperfusion therapy with an accelerated recombinant tissue plasminogen activator regimen and aspirin for AMI were randomly assigned to receive adjunctive therapy for at least 3 days with either enoxaparin or UFH.
Patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who do not receive early reperfusion therapy are at high risk of reinfarction or death, and the efficacy and safety of antithrombotic therapy in this group of patients has not been evaluated. Enoxaparin is a low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) that has previously been shown to reduce the incidence of ischemic events in patients with unstable angina or non-Q-wave MI. The principal aims of the TETAMI study are to investigate the efficacy and safety of treatment with enoxaparin or tirofiban (a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist) alone or in combination for 2 to 8 days in patients with AMI who are not eligible for early reperfusion therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Worldwide there is a large variation in outcome (death, myocardial infarction and recurrent myocardial infarction) in patients with unstable angina or non-Q wave myocardial infarction. These variations may be explained by differences in characteristics of the presenting patients. Here we describe differences in patient presentation, treatment protocols and outcome and we investigate their relationship using data from the ESSENCE (Efficacy and Safety of Subcutaneous Enoxaparin in Non-Q-wave Coronary Events) trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF