Evaluation of the effect of concurrent chronic total occlusion and successful staged revascularization on long-term mortality in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

Objective: To investigate the impact of chronic total occlusion (CTO) in non-infarct-related artery (IRA) on the long-term prognosis and evaluate the clinical significance of staged revascularization in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Methods: 1266 STEMI patients with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were categorized as single-vessel disease (SVD), multivessel disease (MVD) without and with CTO. We study the clinical outcomes of patients after primary PCI in the following 3 years. Additionally, patients with CTO received staged revascularization, and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during 3-year follow-up were recorded.

Results: Presence of CTO was a predictor of both early mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 3.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.4-4.5, P < 0.01] and late mortality (HR 1.9, 95% CI 1.4-3.6, P < 0.01), whereas MVD without CTO was only a predictor of early mortality (HR 1.7, 95% CI 1.3-2.3, P < 0.05). In CTO group, 100 patients had successful CTO recanalization, and 48 patients failed. During 3-year follow-up, patients with failed procedure had higher cardiac mortality (22.9% versus 9.0%, P = 0.020) and lower MACE-free survival (50.0% versus 72.0%, P = 0.009) compared to patients with successful procedure.

Conclusions: The presence of CTO and not MVD alone is associated with long-term mortality. Successful revascularization of CTO in the non-IRA is associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI.