Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) performed within 12 hours after onset of symptoms in acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is the currently recommended therapy in the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology.
1 The basis of these recommendations is an array of clinical trials comparing PCI with thrombolysis on short-term as well as long-term follow-up.
2 Initially and intuitively larger STEMIs in younger patients were eligible for this therapy, but increasingly also smaller infarcts and older patients have proven to benefit from primary PCI.
3 Typically, in centres providing the service of primary PCI in the Netherlands, about a third of the total number of PCIs is now for STEMI. …
