Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Jun 26, 2023; 15(6): 309-323
Published online Jun 26, 2023. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v15.i6.309
Effect of fibrinolytic therapy on ST-elevation myocardial infarction clinical outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Anwar Khedr, Hussam Al Hennawi, Muhammed Khuzzaim Khan, Mostafa Elbanna, Abbas B Jama, Ekaterina Proskuriakova, Hisham Mushtaq, Mikael Mir, Sydney Boike, Ibtisam Rauf, Aalaa Eissa, Meritxell Urtecho, Thoyaja Koritala, Nitesh Jain, Lokesh Goyal, Salim Surani, Syed A Khan
Anwar Khedr, Department of Internal Medicine, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY 10457, United States
Hussam Al Hennawi, Department of Internal Medicine, Jefferson Abington Hospital, Abington, PA 19001, United States
Muhammed Khuzzaim Khan, Department of Internal Medicine, Dow University of Health Science, Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Mostafa Elbanna, Department of Internal Medicine, Rochester Regional Health, Rochester, NY 14621, United States
Abbas B Jama, Department of Critical Care, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Ekaterina Proskuriakova, Department of Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, IL 60608, United States
Hisham Mushtaq, Department of Internal Medicine, St. Vincent's Medical Center, Bridgeport, CT 06606, United States
Mikael Mir, Sydney Boike, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States
Ibtisam Rauf, Department of Medicine, St. George's University, School of Medicine, St George SW17 0RE, Grenada
Aalaa Eissa, Department of Medicine, KFS University, KFS 33511, Egypt
Meritxell Urtecho, Department of Medicine, Robert D and Patricia E. Kern Center of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Thoyaja Koritala, Department of Hospital Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Nitesh Jain, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Lokesh Goyal, Department of Hospital Medicine, Christus Sphon Hospital-shoreline, Corpus Christo, TX 78404, United States
Salim Surani, Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, United States
Syed A Khan, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mankato, MN 56001, United States
Author contributions: Khedr A substantial contributions to conception and design of the study, drafting the article, final approval; Hennawi HA acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article, final approval; Khan MK analysis of data, revising and drafting the article, final approval; Elbanna M performed the data analysis, drafting the article, final approval; Jama AB and Proskuriakova E interpretation of data, drafting the article, final approval; Mushtaq H and Jain N contributed to the acquisition of data, revising the article, final approval; Mir M, Boike S, Rauf I, Eissa A, Koritala T, and Khan SA contributed to the interpretation of data, revising the article, final approval; Urtecho M contributed to the interpretation of data, making critical revisions, final approval; Surani S contributed to the acquisition of data, making critical revisions, final approval.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Salim Surani, FCCP, MD, MHSc, Professor, Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Texas A&M University, Administration Building, 400 Bizzell St, College Station, TX 77843, United States. srsurani@hotmail.com
Received: December 9, 2022
Peer-review started: December 9, 2022
First decision: March 15, 2023
Revised: March 30, 2023
Accepted: May 19, 2023
Article in press: May 19, 2023
Published online: June 26, 2023
Core Tip

Core Tip: The guideline-recommended time goals for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) could not be met during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for the treatment of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Leading cardiology societies recommended considering a new fibrinolytic-based reperfusion strategy during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, previous large-scale studies have indicated that fibrinolytic therapy may offer a reduced prognostic value and poor survival outcomes in patients with STEMI compared to PPCI. We investigated the differential prevalence of the use of fibrinolytic therapy by healthcare systems belonging to countries with distinct income status, and its effect on the risk of all-cause mortality in STEMI patients.