NHLBI Media Availability: Emergency Angioplasty
or Bypass Surgery Improves Long-term Survival of Heart Attack Patients
with Cardiogenic Shock
Treating heart attack patients who have a life-threatening complication
called cardiogenic shock with emergency angioplasty or bypass surgery
greatly improves the long-term survival of these patients. New study
results show that at 6 years, almost 33 percent of patients treated
with one of these revascularization procedures survived compared
to about 20 percent of those receiving intensive medical care to
stabilize their condition. The same study had previously shown that
emergency angioplasty or bypass surgery for heart attack patients
with shock improves 6-month survival; the new analysis found that
this life-saving benefit was sustained over time – in some
cases for as long as 11 years. According to the investigators, the
benefit equals 130 lives saved per 1000 patients treated.
The Should We Emergently Revascularize Occluded Coronaries for
Cardiogenic Shock (SHOCK) trial was funded by the National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of
Health.
The SHOCK trial enrolled 302 heart attack patients with cardiogenic
shock at 29 international sites. Investigators randomly assigned
152 patients to undergo either emergency angioplasty or bypass surgery
(within 6 hours). Another 150 patients were assigned to receive
intensive medical therapy including clot-busting drugs with possible
revascularization after 54 hours.
“Early Revascularization and Long-term Survival in Cardiogenic
Shock Complicating Acute Myocardial Infarction,” by Judith
Hochman, M.D. of the New York University School of Medicine, will
be published in the June 7 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Patrice Desvigne-Nickens, M.D., leader of NHLBI’s Cardiovascular
Medicine Scientific Research Group, is available to comment on the
SHOCK study’s findings. Dr. Desvigne-Nickens can discuss the
importance of applying these findings to the treatment of cardiogenic
shock, the leading cause of death in patients hospitalized for heart
attack. As many as 43,000 hospitalized heart attack patients in
the U.S. develop cardiogenic shock.
To schedule interviews, call the NHLBI Communications Office at
(301) 496-4236.
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) plans, conducts, and supports
research related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment
of heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases; and sleep disorders.
The Institute also administers national health education campaigns
on women and heart disease, healthy weight for children, and other
topics. NHLBI press releases and other materials are available online
at: www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic,
clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates
the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.
For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
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