Acute Myocardial Infarction with St-Segment Elevation: To Aspirate or Not?

Abstract

Acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation (STEMI) is the most serious clinical manifestation of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Golden therapeutic approach for patients with STEMI is primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and its aim is to restore normal coronary flow and provide myocardial tissue reperfusion as soon as possible leading to myocardial salvage. Thrombus aspiration is an adjunctive therapeutic modality to conventional PCI which can be especially powerful and helpful in some clinical subsets of STEMI with large thrombus burden. Here we discuss about advantages and disadvantages of the thrombus aspiration technique in regard to the most important clinical trials.