OBJECTIVE: Treatment delays may result in different clinical outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who receive fibrinolytic therapy vs primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The aim of this analysis was to examine how treatment delays relate to 6-month mortality in reperfusion-treated patients enrolled in the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE).

DESIGN: Prospective, observational cohort study.

SETTING: 106 hospitals in 14 countries.

PATIENTS: 3959 patients who presented with STEMI within 6 h of symptom onset and received reperfusion with either a fibrin-specific fibrinolytic drug or primary PCI.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 6-month mortality.

METHODS: Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between outcomes and treatment delay separately in each cohort, with time modelled with a quadratic term after adjusting for covariates from the GRACE risk score.

RESULTS: A total of 1786 (45.1%) patients received fibrinolytic therapy, and 2173 (54.9%) underwent primary PCI. After multivariable adjustment, longer treatment delays were associated with a higher 6-month mortality in both fibrinolytic therapy and primary PCI patients (p

CONCLUSIONS: Treatment delays in reperfusion therapy are associated with higher 6-month mortality, but this relationship may be even more critical in patients receiving fibrinolytic therapy.