Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in acute myocardial infarction.

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) has, in general, been restricted to therapy for patients with angina pectoris. Thrombolytic therapy and guide wire recanalization have been used to recanalize coronary arteries in patients with evolving myocardial infarction. Recently we and others have examined the use of PTCA to recanalize the acutely occluded artery associated with the early evolving phase of myocardial infarction. PTCA was performed as definitive therapy in eight patients with acute myocardial infarction. Seven of these had totally occluded arteries to the region of infarct. The infarct-related artery was open within 20 minutes in each of these cases. PTCA recanalization resulted in evidence for reperfusion in each case. Residual stenoses either were not present or were minimal. The procedure was well tolerated. These preliminary results suggest that PTCA may be a reasonable alternative to intracoronary thrombolytic therapy in certain patients with acute evolving myocardial infarction.