Frequency and efficacy of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa therapy for treatment of threatened or acute vessel closure in 1332 patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty

Background Glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa antagonists are potent inhibitors of thrombocyte aggregation and thrombus Formation. Several large-scale randomi zed studies for prevention of thrombotic complications have shown their pot ential to reduce these complications in patients undergoing percutaneous tr ansluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). It was the purpose of this observat ional trial to assess the frequency and efficacy of primary GP IIb/IIIa ant agonist therapy as a bailout procedure for the prevention of threatened or abrupt vessel closure in patients after conventional balloon angioplasty. Methods and Results From January 1995 to December 1996, PTCA was performed in 1332 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease. Overall, threate ned or abrupt vessel closure was observed in 63 (4.7%) patients of the pati ent population. In these patients, abciximab was administered (0.25 mg/kg b ody weight intravenous bolus, followed by a 12-hour infusion at 10 mg/min). Repeat PTCA was performed shortly after the administration of the abcixima b bolus to achieve an optimal flow at the time of active GP IIb/IIIa therap y. One day after intervention, early follow-up angiography was performed. F ollow-vp after 1 year included the clinical status of all patients and, if possible, control angiography. Overall, the preintervention minimum lumen d iameter (MID) measured 0.74 +/- 0.27 mm and the diameter stenosis was 75% /- 24%. The postintervention MLD increased to 2.60 +/- 0.55 mm, and the dia meter stenosis decreased to 24% +/- 22%. At 24-hour angiographic follow-up, the MLD decreased to 2.47 +/- 0.49 mm and the diameter stenosis increased to 28% +/- 24%, correspondingly. The thrombus score decreased from 2.8 +/- 1.5 before abciximab treatment to 0.88 +/- 0.81 after abciximab treatment, and Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade increased from 2.1 +/- 1.1 to 2.9 +/- 0.3. In-hospital events occurred in 2 patients. Both patien ts had to undergo emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (1 of these pat ients died). During long-term follow-vp, there were 10 clinical events (1 d eath, 3 repeat PTCA, and 6 coronary artery bypass graft operations for rest enosis at the target lesion site). The cumulative event rate after 1 year ( including acute and follow-vp events) for both the total group and for the target vessel was 19%. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that GP IIb/IIIa antagoni sts are able to prevent vessel occlusion after PTCA complicated by subseque nt threatened or abrupt vessel closure. In these situations, GP IIb/IIIa an tagonists provide effective treatment for the reduction of thrombus at the target lesion site, which constitutes a second key element for threatened o r abrupt vessel occlusion.