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The electrocardiogram is universally used to diagnose ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and serves as guidance for the interventional cardiologist to identify the acute thrombotic lesion. However, this case illustrates that the electrocardiogram can also be deceiving.

Background: Dedicated prospective studies investigating high-definition intravascular ultrasound (HD-IVUS)-guided primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are lacking. The aim of this study was to qualify and quantify culprit lesion plaque characteristics and thrombus using HD-IVUS in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods: The SPECTRUM study is a prospective, single-center, observational cohort study investigating the impact of HD-IVUS-guided primary PCI in 200 STEMI patients (NCT05007535). The first 100 study patients with a de novo culprit lesion and a per-protocol mandated preintervention pullback directly after vessel wiring were subject to a predefined imaging analysis. Culprit lesion plaque characteristics and different thrombus types were assessed. An IVUS-derived thrombus score, including a 1-point adjudication for a long total thrombus length, long occlusive thrombus length, and large maximum thrombus angle, was developed to differentiate between low (0–1 points) and high (2–3 points) thrombus burden. Optimal cut-off values were obtained using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: The mean age was 63.5 (±12.1) years and 69 (69.0%) patients were male. The median culprit lesion length was 33.5 (22.8–38.9) mm. Plaque rupture and convex calcium were appreciated in 48 (48.0%) and 10 (10.0%) patients, respectively. Thrombus was observed in 91 (91.0%) patients (acute thrombus 3.3%; subacute thrombus 100.0%; organized thrombus 22.0%). High IVUS-derived thrombus burden was present in 37/91 (40.7%) patients and was associated with higher rates of impaired final thrombolysis in myocardial infarction flow (grade 0–2) (27.0% vs. 1.9%, p < 0.001). Conclusions: HD-IVUS in patients presenting with STEMI allows detailed culprit lesion plaque characterization and thrombus grading that may guide tailored PCI.

BACKGROUND: Women have a worse prognosis after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) than men. The prognostic role of thrombus burden (TB) in influencing the sex-related differences in clinical outcomes after STEMI has not been clearly investigated. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the sex-related differences in TB and its clinical implications in patients with STEMI. METHODS: Individual patient data from the 3 major randomized clinical trials of manual thrombus aspiration were analyzed, encompassing a total of 19,047 patients with STEMI, of whom 13,885 (76.1%) were men and 4,371 (23.9%) were women. The primary outcome of interest was 1-year cardiovascular (CV) death. The secondary outcomes of interest were recurrent myocardial infarction, heart failure, all-cause mortality, stroke, stent thrombosis (ST), and target vessel revascularization at 1 year. RESULTS: Patients with high TB (HTB) had worse 1-year outcomes compared with those presenting with low TB (adjusted HR for CV death: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.10-2.12; P = 0.01). In unadjusted analyses, female sex was associated with an increased risk for 1-year CV death regardless of TB. After adjustment, the risk for 1-year CV death was higher only in women with HTB (HR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.18-1.28; P < 0.001), who also had an increased risk for all-cause death and ST than men. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with STEMI, angiographic evidence of HTB negatively affected prognosis. Among patients with HTB, women had an excess risk for ST, CV, and all-cause mortality than men. Further investigations are warranted to better understand the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to excess mortality in women with STEMI and HTB.

Background: Women have a worse prognosis after ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) than men. The prognostic role of thrombus burden (TB) in influencing the sex-related differences in clinical outcomes after STEMI has not been clearly investigated. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the sex-related differences in TB and its clinical implication in patients with STEMI. Methods: We analyzed individual patient data from the 3 major randomized clinical trials of manual thrombus aspiration, encompassing a total of 19,047 patients with STEMI, of whom 13,885 (76.1%) were men and 4,371 (23.9%) were women. The primary outcome of interest was 1-year cardiovascular (CV) death. The secondary outcomes of interest were recurrent myocardial infarction, heart failure, all-cause mortality, stroke, stent thrombosis (ST), and target vessel revascularization at 1 year. Results: Patients with high TB (HTB) had worse 1-year outcomes compared with those presenting with low TB (adjusted HR for CV death; 1.52; 95% CI: 1.10-2.12; P=0.01). In unadjusted analyses, female sex was associated with an increased risk for 1-year CV death regardless of TB. After adjustment, this risk for 1-year CV death was higher only in women with HTB (HR 1.23, 95% CI: 1.18-1.28; P<0.001) who also had an increased risk for all-cause death and ST than men. Conclusion: In patients with STEMI, angiographic evidence of HTB negatively affected prognosis. Among patients with HTB, women had an excess risk for stent thrombosis, CV and all-cause mortality than men. Further investigations are warranted to better understand the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to excess mortality in women with STEMI and HTB.

Introduction Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) improves clinical outcome in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) but dedicated prospective studies assessing the safety and efficacy of IVUS guidance during primary PCI are lacking. Methods and analysis The SPECTRUM study is a prospective investigator-initiated single-centre single-arm observational cohort study aiming to enrol 200 patients presenting with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarct undergoing IVUS-guided primary PCI. IVUS will be performed at baseline, postintervention and postoptimisation (if applicable), using a 40-60 MHz high-definition (HD) system. Baseline tissue characterisation includes the morphological description of culprit lesion plaque characteristics and thrombus as assessed with HD-IVUS. The primary endpoint is target vessel failure at 12 months (defined as a composite of cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction and clinically driven target vessel revascularisation). The secondary outcome of interest is IVUS-guided optimisation, defined as IVUS-guided additional balloon dilatation or stent placement. Other endpoints include clinical and procedural outcomes along with post-PCI IVUS findings. Ethics and dissemination The protocol of this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Written informed consent is obtained from all patients. Study findings will be submitted to international peer-reviewed journals in the field of cardiovascular imaging and interventions and will be presented at international scientific meetings.

Background: In patients with prior coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is not uncommon. This study investigated treatment strategy and compared clinical outcomes for native, graft and absent culprit lesions. Methods: Single-center retrospective cohort study. From July 2010 to July 2019, 642 consecutive ACS patients with prior CABG were screened for eligibility. The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) at 1 year, a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke and ischemia-driven revascularization. Results: A total of 549 patients were included, with 215 (39.2 %) having native culprits, 256 (46.6 %) graft culprits and 78 (14.2 %) no clear culprits. Patients with native culprits were treated with native PCI in 94.0 %, re-CABG in 0.9 % and optimal medical therapy (OMT) in 5.1 %. Patients with graft culprits were treated with native PCI in 14.1 %, graft PCI in 81.2 %, re-CABG in 0.8 % and OMT in 3.9 %. All patients without a clear culprit received OMT. The cumulative incidence of 1-year MACE was 24.7 % for native vs 26.2 % for graft vs 21.8 % for absent culprits. Kaplan-Meier curves did not differ significantly. In patients with graft culprit, no significant difference in 1-year MACE was observed between native PCI and graft PCI (30.6 % vs 25.5 %, p = 0.36). Conclusions: This retrospective study shows that in ACS patients with prior CABG, MACE occurred frequently and was comparable for native, graft and absent culprits. Native PCI as treatment strategy for patients with a graft culprit was relatively common, with no significant difference in MACE as compared to graft PCI.

Background: Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) can overcome the intrinsic limitations of coronary angiography for lesion assessment and stenting. IVUS improves outcomes of patients presenting with stable or complex coronary artery disease, but dedicated data on the impact of IVUS-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains scarce. Methods: We systematically searched Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Google Scholar for studies that compared clinical outcomes for IVUS- versus angio-guided PCI in patients with AMI. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality and the secondary endpoint major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Mantel-Haenszel random-effects model was used to calculate pooled risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Nine studies (8 observational, 1 RCT) with a total of 838.902 patients (796.953 angio-guided PCI, 41.949 IVUS-guided PCI) were included. In patients with AMI, IVUS-guided PCI was associated with a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality (pooled RR: 0.70; 95% CI, 0.59–0.82; p < 0.01), MACE (pooled RR: 0.86; 95% CI, 0.74–0.99; p = 0.04) and target vessel revascularization (TVR) (pooled RR: 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73–0.95; p < 0.01). In the subset of patients presenting with ST-segment elevation, IVUS-guided PCI remained associated with a reduced risk for both all-cause mortality (pooled RR: 0.79; 95% CI, 0.66–0.95, p = 0.01) and MACE (pooled RR: 0.86; 95% CI, 0.74–0.99, p = 0.04). Conclusions: This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis comparing IVUS- versus angio-guided PCI in patients with AMI, showing a beneficial effect of IVUS-guided PCI on all-cause mortality, MACE and TVR. Results of ongoing dedicated prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Aims Preliminary studies suggest that direct stenting (DS) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may reduce microvascular obstruction and improve clinical outcome. Thrombus aspiration may facilitate DS. We assessed the impact of DS on clinical outcome and myocardial reperfusion and its interaction with thrombus aspiration among ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients undergoing PCI. Methods and results Patient-level data from the three largest randomized trials on routine manual thrombus aspiration vs. PCI only were merged. A 1:1 propensity matched population was created to compare DS and conventional stenting. Synergy between DS and thrombus aspiration was assessed with interaction P-values in the final models. In the unmatched population (n= 17329), 32% underwent DS and 68% underwent conventional stenting. Direct stenting rates were higher in patients randomized to thrombus aspiration as compared with PCI only (41% vs. 22%; P < 0.001). Patients undergoing DS required less contrast (162 mL vs. 172 mL; P < 0.001) and had shorter fluoroscopy time (11.1 min vs. 13.3 min; P < 0.001). After propensity matching (n = 10944), no significant differences were seen between DS and conventional stenting with respect to 30-day cardiovascular death [1.7% vs. 1.9%; hazard ratio 0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55-1.41; P=0.60; P-interaction = 0.96) and 30-day stroke or transient ischaemic attack (0.6% vs. 0.4%; odds ratio 1.02; 95% CI 0.14-7.54; P= 0.99; P-interaction = 0.81). One-year results were similar. No significant differences were seen in electrocardiographic and angiographic myocardial reperfusion measures. Conclusion Direct stenting rates were higher in patients randomized to thrombus aspiration. Clinical outcomes and myocardial reperfusion measures did not differ significantly between DS and conventional stenting and there was no interaction with thrombus aspiration.