Abstract
BACKGROUND: To assess the influence of combined intracoronary application of high-dose adenosine and tirofiban in primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on clinical events and cardiac function. METHODS: Our study evaluated consecutive patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary PCI, who were randomly divided into adenosine group (n = 130) and control group (n = 128). Combined with thrombus aspiration and then intracoronary tirofiban, the adenosine group received intracoronary adenosine (2 mg) through the aspiration catheter 2 times. After thrombus aspiration and stenting of the infarct- related artery, the control group received placebo. The primary endpoint of our investigation was major adverse cardiac events (MACE) at the 1-year and 3-year marks. The secondary endpoint comprised left ventricular remodeling (LVR) at 6 months, myocardial blush grade (MBG), thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) flow grade and corrected TIMI frame count (CTFC) after PCI. RESULTS: Our study found that TIMI flow grade post-PCI did not differ significantly between the 2 groups, while CTFC favored the adenosine-treated patients (21.6 ± 6.5 vs. 25.1 ± 7.8, p = 0.001). Although the adenosine group achieved a higher rate of MBG 3 (45.1% vs. 32.0%, p = 0.035) and MBG 2-3 (76.2% vs. 62.3%, p = 0.018) than the control group, the incidences of MACE at 1 year (20.0% vs. 25.0%, p = 0.373) and 3 years (26.9% vs. 32.0%, p = 0.413) were comparable. LVR occurred in 23.1% (27/117) of adenosine-treated patients and in 29.8% (43/114) of the controls (p = 0.296). CONCLUSIONS: Intracoronary administration of high-dose adenosine combined with intracoronary tirofiban and thrombus aspiration may further improve myocardial perfusion after primary PCI.