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Distal radial access to prevent radial artery occlusion for STEMI patients (RAPID III): a randomized controlled trial

Zi-Xuan Li, Yu-Jie Wang, Jia-Hui Song, Sen-Hu Wang, Yun-Tao Wang, Yongxia Wu, Hao-Tian Wang, Zi-Jing Liu et al.

BMC Medicine, 2025

260 participants · 17 citations

Abstract

Compared with conventional transradial access (TRA), distal radial access (DRA) is rarely used for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and may be beneficial to prevent radial artery occlusion (RAO). We aimed to evaluate the incidence of RAO between DRA and TRA 24 h after primary PCI in patients with STEMI. This is a single-center, open-label, prospective, randomized controlled trial conducted at Beijing Luhe Hospital, China, between January 2022 and July 2023. Five hundred and twenty patients (mean age: 61.3 ± 13.0 years; 81% male) with STEMI were randomly assigned to the DRA (n = 260) or TRA (n = 260) group. Primary PCI was performed using the radial artery access assigned study group. The primary endpoint was the rate of RAO assessed using Doppler ultrasound 24 h after primary PCI. Secondary outcomes included time taken for sheath insertion, access success rate, hemostasis time, fluoroscopy time, radiation dosage, and access-related complications. The incidence of RAO was significantly lower in the DRA group than that in the TRA group (1.9% vs. 8.5%, P = 0.001). Access was successful in 94.6% of patients, and the crossover rate was 5.4% in both groups. The median time taken for sheath insertion was significantly longer (133 s vs. 114 s, P = 0.009), whereas the mean hemostasis time was shorter (209 ± 71 min vs. 372 ± 70 min, P < 0.001) in the DRA group. The incidence of modified Early Discharge After…

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Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 260 participants or records.

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