CardioExchange Archive

Distal Protection for Primary PCI: The DEDICATION (Drug Elution and Distal Protection in STElevation Myocardial Infarction Trial) trial has turned up a troubling suggestion of an increased risk for stent thrombosis in STEMI patients who received distal protection (DP) adjunctive to primary PCI. In a study appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the incidence of stent thrombosis at 15 months was 11 out of 312 patients randomized to DP versus 4 out of 314 who received conventional therapy. The Danish investigators concluded: “Together with the results of previous studies evaluating DP, the results of the DEDICATION trial demonstrate that routine use of a filter wire in its present form cannot be advocated and probably should be avoided with primary PCI for STEMI.”

1 Million Stroke Patients Who Got the Guidelines: An article in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes reports on the first 1 million stroke patients treated at hospitals participating in the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke program.  Lead author Gregg Fonarow said in an AHA press release that the study found “overall composite care improving substantially from 72 percent in 2003 to 93 percent in 2009. Stroke and TIA patients receiving all of the care measures for which they were eligible increased from 44 percent in 2003 to 84 percent in 2009.”