Primary percutaneous coronary intervention and thrombolysis improve survival in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction and pre-hospital resuscitation.

Background: Patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) surviving pre-hospital resuscitation represent a selected subgroup of patients with a very high adverse event rate. Only few data on the outcome of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (primary PCI) and thrombolysis in such patients are available.

Methods: We analysed the Maximal Individual Therapy of Acute Myocardial Infarction (MITRA) Plus registry. 1529 survivors of pre-hospital resuscitation with STEMI were included. 593 (38.8%) of those patients did not receive early reperfusion therapy, 793 (51.9%) patients received thrombolysis and 143 (9.4%) patients received primary PCI. Hospital mortality in patients receiving primary PCI or thrombolysis was adjusted for confounding factors with a propensity score analysis.

Results: Primary PCI as well as thrombolysis in survivors of pre-hospital resuscitation with STEMI were associated with a significant reduction of hospital mortality (OR: 0.29, 95% CI 0.17-0.50; and 0.74, 95% CI 0.54-0.99, respectively), while primary PCI was superior compared to thrombolysis (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.30-0.84).

Conclusion: Reperfusion therapy improves mortality of patients with STEMI surviving pre-hospital resuscitation, while primary PCI seems to be more effective than thrombolysis.