Health-related quality of life one month after thrombolysis or primary PCI in patients with ST-elevation infarction. A DANAMI-2 sub-study.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) following Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or thrombolytic treatment for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

DESIGN

A questionnaire based study on patients randomised in the DANAMI-2 study to Primary PCI or thrombolysis for STEMI. A total of 1 351 patients (93.2% response rate) randomised in the DANAMI-2 study completed the HRQoL questionnaire one month after the infarction.

RESULTS

With respect to the primary end-points (SF-36 physical component score, angina pectoris, and dyspnoea), patients randomised to primary PCI scored better on the SF-36 physical component score (PCS) (p=0.007), and reported significantly less angina pectoris (p=0.010) and dyspnoea (p=0.010). Higher scores among PCI patients were also found on the SF-36 scales physical functioning (p=0.015), role-physical (p=0.017), and general health (p=0.009).

CONCLUSION

The results in this study support the hypothesis that primary PCI is superior to thrombolysis in treating STEMI, not only in clinical outcome, but also in quality of life outcome.