NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Delivery of abciximab directly to the intracoronary thrombus in patients with acute coronary syndromes is more effective than intracoronary bolus infusion in reducing thrombus burden after angioplasty, and potentially improving coronary microcirculation.

Those findings are reported by Dr. Francesco Prati at San Giovanni Hospital in Rome, Italy, and colleagues in the September issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

The authors explain that adjunctive antiplatelet therapy with the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitor abciximab improves clinical outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous interventions, and that intracoronary administration of abciximab is associated with additional benefits compared with intravenous bolus delivery.

However, with intracoronary delivery the drug is rapidly washed out by coronary flow, so the team investigated the advantages of local abciximab delivery to the site of the thrombus using the ClearwayRX Therapeutic Perfusion Catheter (Atrium Medical Corporation). This is