The impact of stepwise stent deployment on the angiographic and clinical outcome of coronary angioplasty in the setting of an acute myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVES: To detect a reduction in the incidence of no-reflow, and a possible improvement in angiographic and clinical outcome after stepwise stenting in comparison with conventional method in the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of patients with anterior ST elevation myocardial infarction.

METHODS: Between March 2007 and December 2009, patients with anterior acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with streptokinase less than 6 hours from presentation who underwent early PCI were enrolled in this multicenter randomized clinical trial. The study was carried out in the Cardiology Departments of Valiasr Hospital of Zanjan, Imam Reza, and Shahid Madani Heart Hospitals, Tabriz, Iran.

RESULTS: Four hundred and three patients were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: Group I (n=202) with stepwise stent deployment (SSD), and Group II (n=201) with routine conventional stent deployment (CSD). The patients' mean age was 57.7 ± 10.7 years. After PCI, thrombolysis in myocardial infarction myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) 0/1, suggestive of no-reflow was significantly higher in CSD group (p=0.0001). In hospital based, death occurred in 15 patients (7.5%) from CSD group while 4 (2%) from the SSD group (p=0.01). The TMPG was also significantly higher in SSD group (average 2.32 ± 0.18) compared with CSD group, (average 1.66 ± 0.24) (p=0.0001). Conventional stenting technique was an independent predictor of no-reflow in multivariate logistic regression analysis (hazard ratio - 1.43; 95% confidence interval: 1.15-1.73; p=0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: The SSD was associated with improved angiographic reperfusion indices and reduced mortality in early PCI for AMI.