Author Interviews, Clots - Coagulation, Diabetes, Heart Disease, JACC / 12.08.2016
Intracoronary Antiplatelet Abciximab Bolus May Improve Outcomes of Primary PCI in STEMI patients with Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Raffaele Piccolo, MD
Department of Cardiology
Bern University Hospital
University of Bern
Bern, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Over the past two decades, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus has doubled in Western countries and future projections are even worse by showing a 55% increase by 2035 when approximately 592 million of people are expected to live with diabetes all over the world.
Acute myocardial infarction still represents the most common diabetes-related complication and its occurrence is associated with a higher risk of mortality. Timely recanalization of the occluded coronary vessel with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) represents the therapy of choice for acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
Our study investigated whether the direct application of an intracoronary bolus of abciximab, which is an antiplatelet drug blocking the glycoprotein IIb/III a receptor, at the time of primary PCI improves the outcomes at 1-year follow-up compared with the standard intravenous route. The study was in individual patient-level pooled analysis of 3 randomized trials including 2,470 patients, of whom 473 (19%) had diabetes.
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