Elsevier

American Heart Journal

Volume 164, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 394-401
American Heart Journal

Clinical Investigation
Interventional Cardiology
REstoration of COronary flow in patients with no-reflow after primary coronary interVEntion of acute myocaRdial infarction (RECOVER)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2012.06.015Get rights and content

Background

No randomized trial has been conducted to compare different vasodilators for treating no-reflow during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction.

Methods

The prospective, randomized, 2-center trial was designed to compare the effect of 3 different vasodilators on coronary no-reflow. A total of 102 patients with no-reflow in primary PCI were randomized to receive intracoronary infusion of diltiazem, verapamil, or nitroglycerin (n = 34 in each group) through selective microcatheter. The primary end point was coronary flow improvement in corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction frame count (CTFC) after administration of the drug.

Results

Compared with that of the nitroglycerin group, there was a significant improvement of CTFC after drug infusion in the diltiazem and verapamil groups (42.4 frames vs 28.1 and 28.4 frames, P < .001). The improvement in CTFC was similar between the diltiazem and verapamil groups (P = .9). Compared with the nitroglycerin group, the diltiazem and verapamil groups had more complete ST-segment resolution at 3 hours after PCI, lower peak troponin T level, and lower N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide levels at 1 and 30 days after PCI. After drug infusion, the drop of heart rate and systolic blood pressure in the verapamil group was greater than that in the diltiazem and nitroglycerin groups.

Conclusion

Intracoronary infusion of diltiazem or verapamil can reverse no-reflow more effectively than nitroglycerin during primary PCI for acute myocardial infarction. The efficacy of diltiazem and verapamil is similar, and diltiazem seems safer.

Section snippets

Patients

The RECOVER trial is a prospective, randomized, single-blinded, 2-center trial to compare the effect of 3 different vasodilators on coronary no-reflow in patients with ST-segment elevation AMI undergoing primary PCI. The study was conducted in 2 centers in Shanghai between December 2006 and March 2009. During this period, emergency primary PCI was performed in consecutive 608 patients who presented with ST-segment elevation AMI within 12 hours of symptom onset. The diagnosis was made on the

Baseline characteristics

There were no significant differences in the baseline clinical characteristics between the 3 groups (Table I). The mean reperfusion time in the 3 groups was similar, which was around 5 hours. Table II showed the lesion and procedural characteristics and the baseline flow poststenting in the 3 groups. There were no significant differences in the use of thrombus-aspiration device and intravenous/intracoronary glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor. The coronary flow after stenting or before drug

Discussion

Our study is the first randomized trial to compare different vasodilators for treating no-reflow during primary PCI in patients with ST-segment elevation AMI. In our study, the incidence of no-reflow after primary PCI was 17%, which was consistent with previously published no-reflow rates of around 5% to 29% in AMI mechanical reperfusion.13, 14, 15 There were some procedural characteristics in our study that might affect the occurrence of no-reflow phenomenon. First, the overall use of manual

Disclosures

None.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kai Hu, MD, University of Würzburg, for the help in data collection and manuscript revision.

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