Transradial wrist angioplasty safe and effective in treatment of heart attack (UK)

For patients having the most serious form of heart attack, a new study from the United Kingdom concludes that primary angioplasty performed from the wrist "is safe, with comparable outcomes to a femoral approach and a lower risk of vascular complications." The study, published "online first" in Heart, the official journal of the British Cardiovascular Society, looked at 1,051 consecutive patients admitted to a single regional cardiac center with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) between November 2004 and November 2008. Patients presenting to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough were treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, a.k.a. angioplasty) using either radial (571 patients) or femoral (480) artery access. Procedural success was similar between the radial and femoral groups, but major vascular complications were more frequent at the site of femoral access (0% radial versus 1.9% femoral, p=0.001). Patients with cardiogenic shock were excluded from this study, since most would require placement of an intra-aortic balloon pump, which is done through the femoral artery - Angioplasty.Org