Cardiac arrest can be a result of various conditions, the most common of which is ischemic heart disease. Immediate coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) play a critical role in the resuscitation of cardiac arrest patients, but their effectiveness in the absence of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains unclear. The study aims to evaluate the efficacy of coronary angiography after cardiac arrest without STEMI.
This is a multicenter trial that included a total of 552 patients who had cardiac arrest without the signs of STEMI. All the participants were assigned to undergo immediate or delayed coronary angiography, along with PCI if indicated. The primary outcome of the study was survival at 90 days, and the secondary outcomes were overall cerebrovascular conditions, including cerebral functionality, myocardial injury, and major bleeding.
At 90 days of follow-up, 176 of 273 patients (64.5%) in the immediate coronary angiography group and 178 of 265 patients (67.2%) in the delayed angiography group were alive. No significant differences between the two groups in terms of survival or adverse events were reported.
This research concluded that in patients who had been resuscitated after cardiac arrest without STEMI, no significant difference was observed between the outcomes of immediate and delayed coronary angiography.
Ref: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1816897
