ABSTRACT
The management of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has considerably improved over the past decades, with many factors being involved in the reduction of mortality, including earlier diagnosis and treatment of the acute event, improved management of complications such as recurrent ischemia and heart failure, and general availability of pharmacological therapies such as aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors.1 Most attention, however, has been focused on therapies that may restore antegrade coronary blood flow in the culprit artery of the patient with evolving AMI. The two methods to achieve this goal are thrombolytic therapy and immediate coronary angiography followed by primary angioplasty if appropriate.1
