Impact of the Presence of Chronic Total Occlusion in a Non-Infarct-Related Coronary Artery in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients

Chronic total occlusion (CTO) in a non-infarcted-related artery was reported to worsen immediate clinical outcome in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. However, the prognosis of such patients with preserved left ventricular function after successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has not yet been clarified. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the presence of CTO contributes to a worse prognosis even in patients with preserved left ventricular function after primary PCI.We retrospectively analyzed 353 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction, whose left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was not less than 40% in the echocardiography performed 1 day after primary PCI. We divided the patients into two groups according to the presence (n = 25) or absence (n = 328) of CTO in the non-infarct-related coronary artery, and compared the clinical outcome of patients between the two groups.The LVEF estimated by echocardiography after primary PCI was similar between patients with and without CTO (55.1 ± 8.6% versus 58.0 ± 9.4%; P = 0.07). The peak creatine kinase value was also similar between the two groups (1539 versus 1921 U/L; P = 0.33); however, CTO patients were significantly more likely to undergo intra-aortic balloon pumping (56.0% versus 12.5%; P < 0.001) during primary PCI, and 30-day mortality was significantly higher in CTO patients (12.0% versus 0.9%; P < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, cardiogenic shock at arrival was significantly correlated with 30-day mortality.Even though the LVEF of AMI patients with CTO was preserved after successful PCI, a high mortality rate was observed.