As compared with t-PA therapy for acute myocardial infarction, immediate PTCA reduced the combined occurrence of nonfatal reinfarction or death, was associated with a lower rate of intracranial hemorrhage, and resulted in similar left ventricular systolic function.

As compared with balloon angioplasty, stenting of selected venous bypass-graft lesions resulted in superior procedural outcomes, a larger gain in luminal diameter, and a reduction in major cardiac events. However, there was no significant benefit in the rate of angiographic restenosis, which was the primary end point of the study.

These data suggest that ultrasound guidance of stent implantation may result in more effective stent expansion compared with angiographic guidance alone.

These findings demonstrate that ZES has similar clinical safety and efficacy compared with PES in simple and medium complexity single de novo coronary lesions. (ENDEAVOR IV Clinical Trial; NCT00217269).

In the reperfusion era, the two most powerful determinants of freedom from death, reinfarction and recurrent ischemia after myocardial infarction are young age and treatment by primary angioplasty.