OBJECTIVETo assess the effect and safety of therapies in common use for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients with failed thrombolytic therapy.

METHODSWe searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, Issue 2, 2006), MEDLINE (1966 to July 2006), EMBASE (1984 to July 2006), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI, 1994 to July 2006), China Biomedicine Database disc (CBMdisc, 1980 to July 2006). We also searched several key Chinese journals in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The language was limited to Chinese and English. We included all the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for acute myocardial infarction patients with failed thrombolytic therapy. Two authors independently assessed the methodological quality of the included studies, the data were analyzed by RevMan 4.2.8 from the Cochrane Collaboration.

RESULTSNine RCTs met the inclusion criteria. A significant difference was found between the rescue percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) group and conventional treatment group in the mortality rate at the end of the follow-up [RR=0.64, 95%CI (0.41, 0.98)]. Thromboembolic stroke and bleeding in rescue PCI group were significantly higher than that in conventional treatment group [RR=4.39, 95%CI (1.14, 16.87), and RR=2.79, 95%CI (1.55, 5.02), respectively]. Compared with conventional therapy, rescue thrombolytic treatment was associated with a significantly higher reperfusion rate [RR=2.92, 95%CI (1.75, 4.85)]. Comparison between rescue PCI with rescue thrombolytic treatment revealed that the revascularization rate in rescue PCI group was significantly lower than that in rescue thrombolytic group [RR=0.57, 95%CI (0.34, 0.95)], and the incidence of bleeding was significantly higher in rescue PCI group [RR=2.15, 95%CI (1.27, 3.63)]. Comparison of glycoprotein (GP)IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists with standard treatment showed no significant difference between them in the mortality rate and bleeding rate at the end of the follow-up.

CONCLUSIONCurrent evidence does not confirm the effect or safety of the therapies for AMI patients with failed thrombolytic therapy, nor support the routine use of these therapies in clinical practice except for rescue PCI that reduces mortality compared with traditional treatment. Further high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to provide reliable evidence for the treatments of AMI patients with failed thrombolytic therapy.