Additional manual thrombus aspiration for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction during percutaneous coronary...

The clinical efficacy and safety of adjunctive thrombus aspiration (TA) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remain controversial.

Twenty five eligible randomized controlled trials were included to compare the use of thrombus aspiration (TA) with PCI and PCI-only for STEMI. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality and death. The secondary endpoints were major adverse cardiac events (MACE), recurrent infarction (RI), target vessel revascularization (TVR), stent thrombosis (ST), perfusion surrogate markers and stroke.

TIMI flow grade 3 and MBG 2-3 were significantly increased in the TA plus PCI arm compared with the PCI-only arm [relative risk (RR): 1.05, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.02-1.09, P = 0.004] and (RR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.40-2.00, P < 0.001), respectively. There were no significant differences in all-cause mortality, MACEs, TVR and ST rates between the two groups. The RI rate was lower in the TA plus PCI arm than that in the PCI-only arm with short-term follow-up duration (RR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.38-0.96, P = 0.03), but there was no significant difference in RI incidence over the medium- or long-term follow-up periods (RR: 1.00, 95% CI: 0.77-1.29, P = 0.98), and (RR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.81-1.15, P = 0.69), respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the rates of crude stroke and stroke over the medium- or long-term follow-up periods and the crude stroke rate in the TA plus PCI (RR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.08-2.38, P = 0.02) and (RR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.03-1.98, P = 0.03), respectively; this was not observed between the two arms during the short-term follow-up period (RR: 1.47, 95% CI: 0.97-2.21, P = 0.07).

Routine TA-assisted PCI in STEMI patients can improve myocardial reperfusion and get limited benefits related to the clinical endpoints, which may be associated with stroke risk.