Very Early Versus Early Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Patients with Decreased e-GFR after Successful Fibrinolytic Therapy

BACKGROUND: Pharmacoinvasive strategy (PIS) is the alternative approach to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) if PCI capable center isn’t available especially in the developing countries. Our objective of the current study was to investigate the incidence of contrast induced nephropathy (CIN), the occurrence of no reflow phenomenon and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients with decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR) after successful fibrinolytic therapy in order to assess the benefit from very early PCI strategy (within 3–12 hours) or early PCI strategy (within 12–24 hours). METHODS: This randomized clinical trial included 420 patients with STEMI. All participants were classified randomly into two groups according to the time of intervention; Group I patients were subjected to very early PCI (within 3–12 hours) and Group II patients were subjected to early PCI (within 12–24 hours) after receiving successful fibrinolytic therapy. RESULTS: The incidence of CIN in Group I was slightly higher than Group II (23 patients [10.7%] versus 19 patients [9.3%]) respectively, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P value = 0.625). The incidence of no-reflow phenomenon (TIMI 0–2 flow) after the procedure was higher in Group II, while TIMI 3 flow (normal flow) was significantly higher in Group I than Group II (184 [85.6%] vs. 153 [74.6%], respectively) with P value = 0.044. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding mortality and MACE. CONCLUSION: The incidence of CIN was nearly equal in very early PCI (within 3–12 hours) versus early PCI (within 12–24 hours); however, the incidence of no-reflow phenomenon was significantly higher in patients subjected to early PCI (within 12–24 hours).