Stent retriever thrombectomy adjunctive to PCI significantly lowers infarct size in STEMI patients with large thrombus burden compared to conventional PCI alone.
The trial showed a meaningful reduction in creatine kinase-MB area under the curve (CK-MB AUC), a biochemical marker of myocardial injury.
Exploratory cardiac MRI corroborated reduced infarct size with thrombectomy, with no significant differences in left ventricular volumes or ejection fraction at early follow-up.
Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were low and comparable between groups, affirming the safety of the thrombectomy approach.
