We analysed baseline clinical and procedural characteristics of 2539 consecutive STEMI patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) from the Melbourne Interventional Group registry from 2004 to 2012. Patients were classified high risk (HR-STEMI) if they presented with cardiogenic shock, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) or Killip class ≥ 2; or low-risk (LR-STEMI) if there were no high-risk features. We then stratified high- and low-risk patients by DTBT (≤ 90 min vs. > 90 min) and assessed long-term mortality.
Of the 2539 patients, 395 (16%) met the high-risk criteria. A DTBT ≤ 90 min was achieved in 43% of HR-STEMI patients and in 55% of LR-STEMI patients. Patients in the HR-STEMI compared to LR-STEMI cohort had higher in-hospital (31% vs. 1%, p < 0.01) and long-term mortality (37% vs. 7%, p < 0.01). A DTBT ≤ 90 min was associated with significant improvements in short- and long-term mortality in both groups. A DTBT ≤ 90 min was an independent multivariate predictor of long-term survival in LR-STEMI (hazard ratio [HR] 0.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.3–0.9, p = 0.02) but not in HR-STEMI (HR 0.7, 95% CI 0.5–1.1, p = 0.11).
A DTBT ≤ 90 min was associated with improved short- and long-term outcomes in high- and low-risk STEMI patients. However, it was only an independent predictor of long-term survival in LR-STEMI patients.