Nicorandil in patients with acute coronary syndrome and stable angina undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: literature review

Percutaneous coronary intervention is an option for the treatment of coronary artery disease such as acute coronary syndrome and stable angina.Acute coronary syndrome has two groups including acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina.Periprocedural myocardial infarction is a frequent and prognostically important complication of percutaneous coronary intervention and can be easily monitored by measuring myocardial enzymes. Coronary microvascular dysfunction in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for the treatment of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction is associated with poor prognosis. Even after recanalization, reperfusion injury often occurs including no-reflow or slow-flow in which sufficient myocardial blood flow cannot be obtained and results in a poor outcome of cardiac function in the long term.Nicorandil is the opener of the adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channel and is known to have an antiarrhythmic effect and myocardial protective functions such as reduction of the coronary microvascular resistance by relaxing the smooth muscles of blood vessesl and preconditioning.In this literature review, we evaluate articles about acute coronary syndrome and stable angina undergoing PCI.