Long-Term Outcomes of Patients Sent Emergently to the Catheterization Laboratory for Possible Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Current guidelines advocate primary percutaneous coronary intervention as the therapy of choice for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) when available. Little is known about the outcomes of patients without a culprit lesion after referral for primary percutaneous coronary intervention for a presumed STEMI. Subjects were identified within a registry containing consecutive patients who underwent emergent angiography for a potential STEMI from October 2008 to July 2012. Vital status was obtained from the medical record and Social Security Death Index. Cox proportional hazards models were created to evaluate the relation between the angiographic findings and cardiovascular outcomes, including major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and mortality. Among 539 patients who underwent emergent angiography, 65 (12%) had no coronary artery disease (CAD), 110 (20%) had CAD without a culprit lesion, and 364 (68%) had a culprit lesion. Kaplan-Meier analysis of MACE demonstrated that patients with CAD who lack a culprit lesion had a similar rate of MACE to those with a culprit lesion (p = 0.64), and both groups had significantly increased risk compared with those with no CAD (hazard ratio [HR] 1.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01 to 3.41 and HR 2.0, 95% CI 1.15 to 3.54, respectively). Kaplan-Meier analysis of mortality illustrated a nonsignificant trend toward increased mortality in patients having a culprit lesion (HR 1.7, 95% CI 0.59 to 4.80) and those having CAD without a culprit lesion (HR 1.2, 95% CI 0.39 to 3.81) compared with those with no CAD. In conclusion, patients found to have CAD without a culprit lesion in emergent angiography after a presumptive STEMI diagnosis have similar long-term rates of MACE compared with those requiring emergent revascularization.