Impact of Selective Aspiration Thrombectomy on Mortality in Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Although routine aspiration thrombectomy (AT) is not recommended by the current American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association/Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions guideline, for selected cases, a class IIb indication is given because of lack of data. We studied the impact of selective AT on mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction using a prospective registry. We analyzed data of 1,255 patients, of whom 535 underwent AT based on operator's decision. Separate propensity score matching procedures were performed including all patients and only those with initial TIMI (Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction) 0 to 1 flow, indicating the highest thrombus burden. Primary outcome measure was time to all-cause death at 1 year. Both studies were sufficiently powered to detect the hazard ratio (HR) of 0.52 seen in the TAPAS (Thrombus Aspiration during Percutaneous coronary intervention in Acute myocardial infarction Study) trial. In the study with open inclusion criteria, 1-year mortality rates were 15.5% and 14.5% in the AT and conventional percutaneous coronary intervention arm, respectively (p = 0.77). The unadjusted HR was 1.05 (95% CI 0.73 to 1.51), p = 0.80, whereas the adjusted HR was 0.97 (95% CI 0.66 to 1.41), p = 0.87. In patients with initial TIMI 0 to 1 flow, mortality rate at 1 year was 15.6% in the AT and 16.7% in the standard percutaneous coronary intervention group (p = 0.76). The unadjusted and adjusted HRs were similar: 0.91 (95% CI 0.62 to 1.34), p = 0.65 and 0.93 (95% CI 0.62 to 1.37), p = 0.70, respectively. In conclusion, selective AT based on operator's discretion offers no mortality benefit of the magnitude detected in the TAPAS trial, even for patients with initial TIMI 0 to 1 flow grade.