Grant: Operating Grant: Industry-partnered Collaborative Research

A heart attack occurs when a blood clot forms and blocks an artery in the heart. Traditionally, cardiologists have treated heart attack patients by re-opening the blocked artery with a balloon to break up the clot and then place stent. A new strategy is to use a long tube to extract the clot before placing a stent to avoid the clot from going downstream and blocking smaller vessels. Small studies suggest that the new strategy is promising and could improve patient outcomes but are too small to be definitive. The TOTAL trial is a large international randomized trial to determine if thrombus removal (thrombectomy) vs. angioplasty alone improves outcomes in patients with heart attacks. This trial has the potential to change the way heart attack patients are treated and to save many lives.