Abciximab-supported infarct artery stent implantation for acute myocardial infarction and long-term survival - A prospective, multicenter, randomized trial comparing infarct artery stenting plus abciximab with stenting alone

Background - The impact on survival of routine use of abciximab as adjunctive treatment to routine infarct artery stenting for acute myocardial infarction is not defined. We sought to determine the effect of abciximab on 1-year survival and other major adverse cardiac events of patients with acute myocardial infarction undergoing routine infarct artery stenting. Methods and Results - The Abciximab and Carbostent Evaluation (ACE) Trial is an unblinded, randomized, controlled trial that compared abciximab with placebo in patients undergoing routine infarct artery stent implantation for acute myocardial infarction. At 1 year, the survival rate was 95 +/- 2% in the abciximab group and 88 +/- 2% in the stent- alone group ( P = 0.017). The reinfarction rate was 1% in the abciximab group and 6.0% in the stent- alone group, whereas there were no differences between groups in target vessel revascularization rate (16.5% in the abciximab group, 17.5% in the stent- alone group). Conclusions - Abciximab as adjunctive treatment to routine infarct artery stenting for acute myocardial infarction resulted in improved 1-year survival and lower reinfarction rates.