Objectives: The goal of this study was to compare the impact of primary stenting or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients undergoing direct angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that coronary stenting reduces clinical and angiographic restenosis compared with PTCA. However, the impact of stenting on HRQOL from the patient's perspective remains unknown.
Methods: We administered the Seattle Angina Questionnaire and the Medical Outcomes Study Short-form Survey at 1, 6 and 12 months after initial treatment to all North American patients in the Stent-Primary Angioplasty for Myocardial Infarction trial (Stent-PAMI) (n = 509)-a randomized trial comparing primary stenting to conventional PTCA for patients with AMI.
Results: At one month, most HRQOL measures were similar for the two groups, but stent patients reported less bodily pain than PTCA patients (p = 0.03). At six-month follow-up, stenting resulted in significant improvements in several dimensions of HRQOL including reduced anginal frequency and bodily pain as well as improved disease perception (all p < or = 0.03) and a trend towards better anginal stability (p = 0.056). By 12-month follow-up, however, none of these differences remained statistically significant. These differences in HRQOL were largely explained by the greater need for ischemia-driven target-vessel repeat revascularization procedures in PTCA patients during the first six months (16.0% vs. 6.2%, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: In patients undergoing revascularization for AMI, initial stent placement is associated with improvements in several dimensions of health status during the first six months of follow-up. In the absence of differences in mortality, these findings add to the overall argument in favor of initial stenting in patients treated with mechanical reperfusion for myocardial infarction.