[Current perspectives on emergent coronary angioplasty for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction].

: In recent years, emergent catheter-based angioplasty has become the preferred treatment for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction. The use of balloon angioplasty, stents and recently introduced drug eluting stents allowed optimized and sustained coronary patency. However, it became apparent that epicardial patency would not guarantee optimized myocardial tissue perfusion. Therefore, additional work is required to preserve the damaged tissue afflicted by myocardial infarction. There is also a need for more research directed towards improved prognosis and myocardial preservation.