Published Online
on August 25, 2003

A more recent version of this article appeared on September 16, 2003

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Submitted on January 29, 2003
Revised on July 2, 2003
Accepted on July 8, 2003

Randomized Comparison of Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty and Medical Therapy in Stable Survivors of Acute Myocardial Infarction With Single Vessel Disease. A Study of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitende Kardiologische Krankenhausärzte

Uwe Zeymer MD^*, Rainer Uebis MD, Albrecht Vogt MD, Hans-Georg Glunz MD, Hans-Friedrich Vöhringer MD, Dietrich Harmjanz MD, Karl-Ludwig Neuhaus MD, and for the ALKK-Study Group

From the Medizinische Klinik II (U.Z., A.V., K.L.N.), Klinikum Kassel; Medizinische Klinik I (R.U.), Klinikum Aschaffenburg; Medizinische Klinik II (H.G.G.), Klinikum der Stadt Kaiserslautern; Medizinische Klinik I (H.F.V.), DRK-Krankenhaus Köpenick, Berlin; and Innere Medizin-Kardiologie (D.H.), Allgemeines Krankenhaus Celle, Germany.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Uwe.Zeymer{at}t-online.de.

Background--Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty of the infarct-related artery in stable survivors of acute myocardial infarction is often performed, even in patients without any symptoms or residual ischemia. Despite the lack of randomized studies, it is widely believed that this intervention will improve the clinical outcome of these patients.

Methods and Results--Three hundred patients with single vessel disease of the infarct vessel and no or minor angina pectoris in the subacute phase (1 to 6 weeks) after an acute myocardial infarction were randomized to angioplasty (n=149) or medical therapy (n=151). Primary end point was the survival free of reinfarction, (re)intervention, coronary artery bypass surgery, or readmission for severe angina pectoris at 1 year. The event-free survival at 1 year was 82% in the medical group and 90% in the angioplasty group (P=0.06). This difference was mainly driven by the difference in the need for (re)interventions (20 versus 8, P=0.03). At long-term follow-up (mean, 56 months), survival was 89% and 96% (P=0.02). Survival free of reinfarction, (re)intervention, or coronary artery bypass surgery was 66% and 80% in the medically and interventionally treated patients, respectively (P=0.05). The use of nitrates was significantly lower in the angioplasty group, both at 1 year (38% versus 67%, P=0.001) and at long-term follow-up (36% versus 55%, P=0.006).

Conclusions--Percutaneous revascularization of the infarct-related coronary artery in stable patients with single vessel disease improves clinical outcome at long-term follow-up and reduces the use of nitrates. The results of our study should be reproduced in a confirmatory study with a larger sample size before percutaneous coronary intervention in this low-risk patient subgroup, after myocardial infarction can be recommended as routine treatment in clinical practice.

Key words: myocardial infarction • angioplasty • prognosis • survival

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