This Article Full Text Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by SoRelle, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by SoRelle, R. Related Collections Related Article

(Circulation. 2003;107:e9050.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiovascular News

Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Circulation Newswriter

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Intracoronary ß-Blocker Before Percutaneous Intervention Protects Myocardium

Intracoronary administration of the ß-blocker propanolol before percutaneous intervention protected myocardium during the procedure, said researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in this week’s issue of the journal Circulation (Circulation. 2003;107:2914–2919).

Researchers led by Fen Wei Wang, MD, of UTMB, randomly assigned 150 patients scheduled for percutaneous intervention to receive intracoronary percutaneous intervention or placebo. Propanolol was delivered before the inflation of the angioplasty balloon using an intracoronary catheter. The scientists monitored creatine kinase–MB and troponin T in the patients during the first 24 hours after the procedure. Patients were monitored for 30 days for short-term adverse events.

They found that 36% of patients in the placebo group and 17% of those in the propanolol group showed evidence of myocardial infarction as measured by elevations of creatine kinase–MB. Higher levels of troponin T were seen in 33% of the placebo patients and only 13% of the patients who received ß-blocker.

After 30 days, 40% of the patients in the placebo group had either died, suffered a myocardial infarction right after the procedure, suffered a non–Q-wave myocardial infarction after hospitalization for the procedure, or undergone an urgently required revascularization of the lesion that required treatment in the first procedure. By comparison, only 18% of the patients who received the propanolol fell into the above group.

The researchers concluded: "If one assumes that IC [intracoronary] ß-blocker is used routinely and is applicable to 80% of patients (on the basis of inclusion criteria from the present study), . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Distal Myocardial Protection During Percutaneous Coronary Intervention With an Intracoronary ß-Blocker

Fen Wei Wang, Abdulfatah Osman, Javier Otero, George A. Stouffer, Sergio Waxman, Adnan Afzal, Angelo Anzuini, and Barry F. Uretsky
Circulation 2003 107: 2914-2919. [Abstract] [Full Text]