RESUMO
PURPOSE: To describe the use of myocardial reperfusion strategies (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty-PTCA and intravenous trombolysis) whenever it is possible to use emergency cinecoronariography in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: The records of patients admitted with initial diagnosis of AMI, until six hours after the beginning of symptoms, were reviewed retrospectively, between March/92 and December/93. RESULTS: One hundred forty-three patients were admitted with suspected AMI. Eighty-one (57%) presented definitive criteria for this diagnosis. Fifty-two patients (64%) were admitted in the first six hours from the beginning of symptoms. Thirty-eight (73%) were male and the mean age was 59 +/- 12 years. Cinecoronariography was indicated immediately in 36 of 52 (69%) patients, with purpose to use PTCA. That was done in 30 (58%). Two (4%) patients were submitted to emergency surgical myocardial revascularization. Intravenous thrombolysis was used in 11 (21%) patients. At admission, the conservative treatment was chosen for five out of nine left patients, based on clinical grounds. CONCLUSION: The availability of emergency cinecoronariography made an early reperfusion strategy possible in 83% of patients admitted with AMI in the first six hours after the beginning of symptoms.