The impact of initial treatment delay using primary angioplasty on mortality among patients with acute myocardial infarction: From the Korea acute myocardial infarction registry

The impact of treatment delays to reperfusion on patient mortality after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is controversial. We analyzed 5,069 patients included in the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR) between November 2005 and January 2007. We selected 1,416 patients who presented within 12 hr of symptom onset and who were treated with primary PCI. The overall mortality at one month was 4.4%. The medians of door-to-balloon time, symptom onset-to-balloon time, and symptom onset-to-door time were 90 (interquartile range, 65-136), 274 (185-442), and 163 min (90-285), respectively. One-month mortality was not increased significantly with any increasing delay in door-to-balloon time (4.3% for <= 90 min, 4.4% for > 90 min; p=0.94), symptom onset-to-balloon time (3.9% for <= 240 min, 4.8% for > 240 min; p=0.41), and symptom onset-to-door time (3.3% for <= 120 min, 5.0% for > 120 min; p=0.13). These time variables had no impact on one-month mortality in any subgroup. Thus, this first nationwide registry data in Korea showed a good result of primary PCI, and the patient prognosis may not depend on the initial treatment delay using the current protocols.