Objective: Assess the interaction between fibrinolysis and in-hospital percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with inferior myocardial infarction (MI), particularly those with electrocardiographic evidence of right ventricular infarction (RVI).
Design: Retrospective observational study.
Patients: Consecutive patients with inferior MI identified from an MI registry between January 1998 and January 2004.
Interventions: Propensity analyses and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the mortality benefit of PCI.
Main outcome measures: In-hospital morbidity and mortality.
Results: In total, 465 patients with inferior MI received fibrinolytic therapy (median pain-to-needle time of 167 minutes; IQR 100-311 minutes). The main predictors of PCI were recurrent chest pain, peak creatine kinase, age, reinfarction, presence of heart failure and male gender. Significant independent predictors of in-hospital mortality were age > or = 75 years, RVI, initial systolic blood pressure < or = 80 mmHg, female gender and no in-hospital PCI. In-hospital PCI was performed in 184/465 (40%) patients; 55 (30%) had rescue PCI performed < or = 6 hours post fibrinolysis, 45 (24%) within 6-24 hours and 84 (46%) > or = 24 hours. In-hospital PCI was associated with reduced in-hospital mortality (PCI: 9 [5%] vs. no PCI: 40 [14%]; p < 0.001) mainly in those with RVI (PCI: 8 [8%] vs. no PCI 33 [23%]; p = 0.002) compared with no RVI (PCI: 1 [1%] vs. no PCI 7 [5%]; p = 0.1).
Conclusion: A strategy of timely fibrinolysis combined with in-hospital PCI including rescue PCI may result in a significant reduction in in-hospital mortality and morbidity in patients with inferior MI, particularly those with RVI.