Myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock---the experience of a primary PCI centre from North-East Romania

Objectives: To evaluate the severity of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) complicated with cardiogenic shock (CS), by comparison with inferior and right ventricular AMI, which is also considered a severe form of myocardial infarction. Methods: In an observational study, from 774 patients with STEMI hospitalized in our Cardiology Institute, over one year and a half, only 120 patients met the inclusion and exclusion criteria (60 patients with CS and 60 patients with right ventricular AMI). Data collected included age, sex, vital signs, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, left ventricular ejection fraction, right ventricular dysfunction, complications during hospitalization and coronarography results. Results: Patients with CS had a more severe systolic dysfunction (median ejection fraction 22.72 +/- 12.30% vs. 41.93 +/- 10.50%, P < 0.0001). Single-vessel disease was the most common in both groups, left anterior descending artery being the culprit artery in most patients with cardiogenic shock, 25% of them having residual lesions with a severity >75%. Using a multivariate analysis, we observed that for patients with CS, delayed coronary angiography evaluation, as well as the presence of severe triple-vessel disease, were associated with a higher risk of death. In-hospital mortality (53.33% vs. 8.33%, P < 0.0001) and ventricular arrhythmia were significantly higher in patients with CS (48.3% vs. 11.3%, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Our study suggests that patients with AMI and CS can be considered the most severe form of myocardial infarction and should, therefore, benefit of prompt and appropriate treatment, to improve the outcome.