Therapy-Dependent Influence of Time-to-Treatment Interval on Myocardial Salvage in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated With Coronary Artery Stenting or Thrombolysis

Background— The relationship between myocardial salvage and time-to-treatment interval in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treated with coronary artery stenting or thrombolysis has not been studied. Methods and Results— This study analyzed 264 patients with AMI randomized to coronary stenting (133 patients) or thrombolysis (131 patients) in the setting of 2 randomized trials. Patients were divided into the following 3 groups defined by tertiles of the time-to-treatment interval: lower tertile ( 280 minutes). Paired scintigraphic examinations were performed to obtain salvage index, which was the primary end point of the study. In the group with thrombolysis, the salvage index (median [25th; 75th] percentile) was 0.45 (0.16; 0.83) in the lower, 0.29 (0.17; 0.48) in the middle, and 0.20 (0.04; 0.46) in the upper tertile (P=0.03). In the group with stenting, the salvage index was 0.56 (0.49; 0.75) in the lower, 0.57 (0.36; 0...