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At the two hospitals, first percutaneous coronary intervention was performed on 1031 patients (700 male and 331 female, average age 59.8 +/- 15.1 years) between July 2000 and June 2002. The indications were: stable effort angina 679 (65.8%), unstable angina and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction 267 (26.0%), ST elevation myocardial infarction 85 (8.2%). Single vessel dilatation was performed on 906 (87.9%), double and triple vessel on 125 (12.1%) pts in 1170 vessels (1145 native, 24 saphenous vein and 1 mammary artery graft) and in 1372 stenoses. During the interventions, 1043 stents were implanted in 797 pts, average 1.3/pt. The intervention was clinically successful in 950 (92.1%) and unsuccessful in 81 (7.9%) pts. In most of cases, the lack of success was a result of ineffective recanalisation. 65 major adverse cardiac events occurred in 35 (3.4%) pts (acute redilatation 20 (1.9%), acute surgery 4 (0.4%), acute myocardial infarction 34 (3.3%) and fatal outcome 7 (0.7%). Fatal outcome occurred in the group of stable angina 1 (0.1%), in the group of unstable angina and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction 4 (1.5%), in the group of ST elevation myocardial infarction 2 (2.4%). Within one year, 228 (22.1%) repeated dilatations were performed because of chronic restenosis. The results suggest that the moderate risk interventions can be performed with satisfactory result and average risk even without in-hospital cardiac surgery. High-risk interventions are still to be performed in institutes without on-site surgery.

After reperfusion therapy of acute myocardial infarction not only the patency of infarct related artery (IRA) but uncompromised myocardial perfusion are essential for recovery of myocardial contractile function.The authors sought to evaluate the relation between the status of myocardial microvasculature early after successful mechanical reperfusion therapy of AMI and contractile function at rest two weeks later.Sixty-three patients with first acute myocardial infarction underwent venous myocardial contrast echocardiography (VMCE) 3 hours after successful percutaneous coronary intervention. The myocardial contrast intensity of akinetic segments was evaluated according to a semiquantitative score (1 = normal; 2 = moderate contrast defect; 3 = serious contrast defect; 4 = no contrast at all). Two weeks later the resting contractile function of previously akinetic segments (n = 218) was re-evaluated.The semiquantitative contrast score was significantly different between differential functional groups observed after two weeks: normokinesia (1.21 +/- 0.47); hypokinesia (1.65 +/- 0.77); akinesia (2.75 +/- 0.85). Sensitivity and the specificity of semiquantitative venous myocardial contrast echocardiography for early prediction of functional recovery is 90% and 69%, respectively (chi 2 = 76.2; p0.001). The global wall motion score index improved in contrast positive patients (more than 50% of initial akinetic segments show score 1 or 2) (1.607 +/- 0.30 vs. 1.295 +/- 0.25; p0.001), but did not change in the contrast negative patients (1.702 +/- 0.38 vs. 1.603 +/- 0.33; p = NS).Functional recovery after AMI can be predicted with VMCE immediately after successful reopening of IRA. The post-PTCA contrast intensity of an infarcted segment is closely related to its subsequent functional status.