Primary angioplasty: preprocedural pharmacological therapy.

Primary coronary angioplasty has been shown to be an effective reperfusion therapy for patients with acute myocardial infarction, not only for those who present to PTCA centres but also for patients who present to hospitals without angioplasty facilities. With the increasing use of primary angioplasty more patients will be transferred to a (tertiary) PTCA centre. An increase in treatment delay is associated with a worse clinical outcome. The importance of an open infarct-related vessel at acute angiography is becoming clear. Pharmacological pretreatment of patients during transportation to a PTCA centre with the aim to open the infarct-related vessel in advance might be beneficial. Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor blockers seem to be the agents of choice for facilitated PTCA. The safety and (cost) effectiveness of this pretreatment of patients transported to undergo primary angioplasty remain to be evaluated.