Impact of intracoronary adenosine administration during primary PCI: A meta-analysis

Aim of the present study was to evaluate all randomized trials, comparing intracoronary adenosine versus placebo in STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI.

PubMed, the Cochrane Library and ISI Web of Knowledge electronic databases were scanned for eligible studies up to February 23rd 2015. The summary measure used was risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals. A total of 13 studies were eligible, including 1487 patients. Incidence of ST resolution was significantly higher in the IC adenosine group than in the placebo group (RR = 1.20 [1.05–1.38]; p = 0.008). At metaregression, a significant correlation was found between the magnitude of the adenosine-related effect on ST resolution and the mean ischemic time (p = 0.011) or the percentage of patients with the LAD as the infarct-related artery (p = 0.03). Furthermore, we found a larger increase in LVEF (p = 0.02) with a parallel reduction in the incidence of heart failure (HF) (RR = 0.50 [0.28–0.89]; p = 0.02) in the IC adenosine group. Finally, IC adenosine administration was associated with a significantly lower incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) both at short- (RR = 0.62 [0.39–0.98] p = 0.04) and long-term (RR = 0.61 [0.39–0.95] p = 0.03).

This is the first meta-analysis demonstrating a clinical benefit for IC adenosine in hard endpoints, such as adverse cardiovascular events, in patients undergoing primary PCI.