title: Improvement of myocardial perfusion after thrombolysis assessed by thallium-201 exercise scintigraphy. Report of the Working Group on Thrombolytic Therapy in Acute Myocardial Infarction of the Netherlands Interuniversity Institute of Cardiology.
abstract: The effects of recanalization by early intracoronary streptokinase in acute myocardial infarction on myocardial perfusion were studied in a subset of 236 out of 533 patients enrolled in a prospective multicentre trial, randomly allocated to either conventional treatment or to thrombolysis. Maximal symptom-limited thallium-201 stress testing was performed nine to 14 (median 12) weeks after the acute event in 236 patients with a first myocardial infarction, of whom 108 patients were allocated to conventional treatment and 128 patients to thrombolysis. Three-view thallium exercise and redistribution scintigrams were divided into eight segments. The number of normal thallium segments at redistribution was 5.3 +/- 1.6 (mean +/- SD) in the control group and 5.8 +/- 1.6 in the thrombolysis group (P less than 0.01), indicating increased myocardial perfusion after early thrombolytic treatment. This beneficial effect was particularly evident in patients with a first anterior infarction with 4.8 +/- 1.6 normal thallium segments in the control group and 5.9 +/- 1.6 normal segments in the thrombolysis group (P less than 0.001). There was no difference in residual ischaemia during exercise between the control and the thrombolysis group either in the patients with anterior or in those with inferior infarction. It is concluded that early thrombolysis within 4 h after onset of symptoms, in some of the patients followed by angioplasty or coronary artery bypass surgery, leads to sustained improvement of myocardial perfusion at rest without excessive ischaemia during exercise, particularly in patients with acute anterior infarction.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Cardiology, Academic Hospital Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: van der Wall
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Res
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van den Pol
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vermeer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van der Laarse
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Braat
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fioretti
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Krauss
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Verheugt
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Simoons
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000800:Angioplasty, Balloon; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011897:Random Allocation; D013300:Streptokinase / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D013300:Streptokinase