Invasive TACTIC superior after tirofiban in acute coronary syndromes

Last year at the American Heart Association meeting, data from the TACTICS-TIMI* 18 clinical trial showed the superiority of an early invasive strategy in patients with acute coronary syndromes who had previously received medical therapy with aspirin, heparin, β-blockers and the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist tirofiban ['Aggrastat'].1** Compared with a conservative strategy, the invasive strategy significantly reduced the risk of the composite endpoint of death, myocardial infarction (MI) and repeat hospitalisation with worsening chest pain, at 6 months. At the 50th Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology [Orlando, US; March 2001], US cardiologist Dr William Weintraub presented the results of a prospective economic analysis of TACTICS-TIMI 18 which showed that the benefits of the invasive strategy were achieved with no appreciable increase in cost.2 A related study showed that evaluation of ACS patients with an assay for the cardiac enzyme troponin T can increase the proportion of patients who might benefit from invasive treatment.3