Let's Not Let the Genie Escape from the Bottle — Again

Abstract

A BOLD and exciting new technique to protect ischemic myocardium has recently been developed. In several pilot studies carried out in patients with acute myocardial infarction, it has been shown that acutely occluded coronary arteries can be recanalized by the intracoronary injection of streptokinase or a fibrinolytic agent.^{1 2 3 4 5 6} If optimum care is to be provided to the million or so patients who have acute myocardial infarction each year, this technique deserves more carefully designed evaluation than that given a similarly bold and exciting technique developed a little more than a decade ago: coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG).CABG was quickly recognized . . .