# Emergency stenting for ST-elevation heart attack (primary PCI) Intervention · id `cardio:primary-pci-for-stemi` · Cardiovascular Atlas · release `73130c34862e2d06` (public) > General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here. The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations. Browse, condition area: Acute care and long-term living ## In plain language Primary PCI means using percutaneous coronary intervention (balloon angioplasty, often with a stent) as an emergency treatment to reopen a blocked heart artery during a heart attack. A US government health page says PCI is done by a cardiologist in a hospital catheterization laboratory and is often done as soon as the team confirms a heart attack, and that early treatment helps limit damage to the heart. Target times were not read. ## Technical summary A US government heart attack treatment page describes PCI with a stent after a heart attack and says that after a stent, anticlotting medicines are usually needed for a minimum of six to twelve months. It says the risk of complications is higher in older people, in people with kidney disease, with heart failure during the procedure, or with widespread heart disease affecting more than one coronary artery. The page does not use the terms primary PCI or ST-elevation. The terms primary PCI and ST-elevation appear in the abstract of a 2025 US guideline on acute coronary syndromes, which names a 2015 focused update on primary PCI for ST-elevation myocardial infarction among the guidance whose evidence it updates (see the claim). No reperfusion target or timing is recorded, because the guideline text could not be read. ## Claims, with the population each applies to ## Context: Patients with acute coronary syndromes, as covered by the 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI guideline (abstract) Recipient: Recipient not specified; Population: Patients with acute coronary syndromes. The abstract names earlier guidelines on ST-elevation myocardial infarction and on non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes as the base whose evidence it updates, and it states no recommendation for any group.; Care setting: Not stated in the abstract.; Geography: United States (an American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guideline); the abstract names no other jurisdiction.; Life stage: The abstract states no age limits.; Gestational age: Not reported; Postnatal age: Not reported; Follow-up: Not applicable (guideline). ### The abstract of the 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes names, among the earlier guidance whose evidence it updates, the 2015 ACC/AHA/SCAI focused update on primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-elevation myocardial infarction. - Category: Description - Evidence stage: Guidance - Certainty: Certainty not assessed - Applies to: Recipient: Recipient not specified; Population: Patients with acute coronary syndromes. The abstract names earlier guidelines on ST-elevation myocardial infarction and on non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes as the base whose evidence it updates, and it states no recommendation for any group.; Care setting: Not stated in the abstract.; Geography: United States (an American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guideline); the abstract names no other jurisdiction.; Life stage: The abstract states no age limits.; Gestational age: Not reported; Postnatal age: Not reported; Follow-up: Not applicable (guideline). - Limitations: Only the abstract was read. It names the focused update and says nothing about what it recommends, so no recommendation, class, level of evidence or reperfusion time is recorded. PubMed links three errata (corrections) to the Circulation version of the 2025 guideline (PMIDs 40163565, 40549849 and 41212941); their text was not read, so it is not known whether the corrections change anything the abstract says. - Last checked: 2026-10-15 - Source problem: a cited source is corrected. Check the sources before relying on this claim. - Sources: 1. Supports: 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) fetched 2026-10-15 through NCBI E-utilities. No PMC copy is listed. Only the abstract was read: publisher pages (ahajournals.org) return HTTP 403 to scripts and were not tried by other means. PubMed links three errata (Circulation 2025 Apr;151(13):e865, PMID 40163565; 2025 Jun 24;151(25):e1098, PMID 40549849; 2025 Nov 11;152(19):e402, PMID 41212941) whose text was not read, so the source state is corrected.) Locator: Abstract, AIM, sentence 1, fragment 1 of 3. Retrieved 2026-10-15T13:49:00Z. Source state: Corrected. Snapshot hash: 073d0f62da50e2485673334b533cb83924c205bf026fecff651633bccbee4a44. How it applies: Aim of the guideline, stated in the abstract. 2. Supports: 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) fetched 2026-10-15 through NCBI E-utilities. No PMC copy is listed. Only the abstract was read: publisher pages (ahajournals.org) return HTTP 403 to scripts and were not tried by other means. PubMed links three errata (Circulation 2025 Apr;151(13):e865, PMID 40163565; 2025 Jun 24;151(25):e1098, PMID 40549849; 2025 Nov 11;152(19):e402, PMID 41212941) whose text was not read, so the source state is corrected.) Locator: Abstract, AIM, sentence 1, fragment 2 of 3. Retrieved 2026-10-15T13:49:00Z. Source state: Corrected. Snapshot hash: 073d0f62da50e2485673334b533cb83924c205bf026fecff651633bccbee4a44. How it applies: Aim of the guideline, stated in the abstract. 3. Supports: 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines (Publication, edition PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) fetched 2026-10-15 through NCBI E-utilities. No PMC copy is listed. Only the abstract was read: publisher pages (ahajournals.org) return HTTP 403 to scripts and were not tried by other means. PubMed links three errata (Circulation 2025 Apr;151(13):e865, PMID 40163565; 2025 Jun 24;151(25):e1098, PMID 40549849; 2025 Nov 11;152(19):e402, PMID 41212941) whose text was not read, so the source state is corrected.) Locator: Abstract, AIM, sentence 1, fragment 3 of 3. Retrieved 2026-10-15T13:49:00Z. Source state: Corrected. Snapshot hash: 073d0f62da50e2485673334b533cb83924c205bf026fecff651633bccbee4a44. How it applies: Aim of the guideline, stated in the abstract. ## Connected pages - Emergency use of PCI: Percutaneous coronary intervention (stents) (`cardio:pci`) - Procedure used in heart attack care: Heart attack (myocardial infarction) (`cardio:myocardial-infarction`) - Filed under this front: Emergency and acute care (`cardio:front-emergency-and-acute-care`) ## Provenance Content hash: db099dde263d36eb9113e886f1e57711d0385d09d8d6c58cdb30421bcb7eebb6 Last substantive edit: 2026-10-15 Evidence last checked: 2026-10-15