Efficacy and safety of nicorandil on perioperative myocardial injury in patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention: results of the PENMIPCI trial

Ziliang Ye,1 Haili Lu,2 Qiang Su,1 Manyun Long,1 Lang Li1 On behalf of the PENMIPCI investigators 1Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthodontics, The Affiliated Dental Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China Background: Previous studies have indicated that nicorandil can reduce perioperative myocardial injury (PMI) in patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (ePCI), but this conclusion is still controversial. Additionally, studies reporting on the safety of nicorandil are lacking. Therefore, we performed this prospective study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of nicorandil on PMI in patients undergoing ePCI.Methods: One hundred and forty-six patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) scheduled to undergo ePCI were randomly assigned to the nicorandil group (n=74) or control group (n=72). The primary outcomes were the change in cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) at 12 and 24 hours after surgery. The secondary outcome was the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), which was a composite of cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, new heart failure or coronary revascularization.Results: There was no difference in age (54.76±5.93 vs 56.35±5.22) between the nicorandil group and the control group. In addition, no differences were observed in the cTnT and CK-MB levels between the two groups at admission (all P>0.05). Compared with those in the control group, the cTnT (0.15±0.12 vs 0.12±0.10 at 12 hours and 0.17±0.12 vs 0.13±0.10 at 24 hours) and CK-MB (15.35±8.23 vs 12.31±7.93 at 12 hours and 13.63±8.87 vs 11.13±5.71 at 24 hours) levels in the nicorandil group were significantly decreased after surgery (all P