Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the prognosis of patients presenting early ventricular fibrillation (VF) in the setting of ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
Patients and methods: Among patients included in the ARIAM (Análisis del Retraso en el Infarto Agudo de Miocardio) registry with the diagnosis of STEMI, those who received primary revascularization and were admitted in the first 12 h were analyzed retrospectively.
Results: From January 2007 to January 2012, 8340 patients were included in the STEMI cohort and 680 (8.2%) of them presented with VF before admission to the ICU (VF). This group comprised younger patients with fewer comorbidities. They received more often primary angioplasty (33.7 vs. 24.9%; P<0.001), had more prevalence of Killip class greater than or equal to 2 at admission (37.5 vs. 17.8%; P<0.001), and suffered more often cardiogenic shock (18.5 vs. 5.9%, P<0.001). By logistic regression analysis, VF was associated with a greater in-hospital mortality [odds rate (OR): 2.08, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.57-2.81, P<0.001]. After a propensity score matching process, VF was associated with in-hospital mortality (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.05-2.25, P=0.028). However, when analyzing patients treated by primary angioplasty, the mortality was not significantly related to VF (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.45-1.61, P=0.628).
Conclusion: Our results show that VF before ICU admission was an independent predictor of in-hospital outcome in a cohort of patients in whom fibrinolysis was the most used revascularization therapy. However, this prognostic value was not found in patients treated with primary angioplasty.