Adjunctive Reperfusion Therapy Post-AMI

• Reperfusion of the occluded coronary artery in an ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction is the most effective approach for reducing infarct size, preserving left ventricular ejection fraction, lowering the incidence and severity of congestive heart failure and improving prognosis• Hence, several pharmacologic agents intended to improve target vessel patency as an adjunct to thrombolysis or primary percutaneous coronary intervention have been shown to be beneficial in patients with reperfusion therapy for acute myocardial infarction, namely antiplatelet and anticoagulation agents• Animal investigations have suggested that coronary reperfusion may also result in undesirable cardiac alterations, termed ‘reperfusion injury’, such as reversible contractile dysfunction (‘stunning’), microvascular obstruction (‘no-reflow’), and in several studies the progression of myocardial necrosis (‘lethal reperfusion injury’)• Clinical investigations of various pharmacologic interventions as an adjunctive therapy to reperfusion to reduce final infarct size, the amount of contractile dysfunction and to improve prognosis have been mostly inconsistent; only a few interventions, e.g. adenosine and atrial natriuretic peptide seem to show promise at least in certain subgroups.