Response to Letters Regarding Article, “Presence of Older Thrombus Is an Independent Predictor of Long-Term Mortality in Patients With ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Treated With Thrombus Aspiration During Primary

We agree with Testa et al that it may be clinically relevant that we used different aspiration devices. In our dataset, subanalysis showed that aspiration success was similar for the procedures in which the Rescue catheter, Export catheter, and Proxis device were used (73%, 74%, and 82%, respectively).1 We are in the process of evaluating the results with different devices in more detail. We also agree that classification into 6 groups (fresh, lytic, organized, thrombus, and with or without plaque), such as we reported previously in Circulation in 2005, may better represent histopathological com-plexity.2 In the present analysis, we observed similar outcomes in patients with lytic and organized thrombus, and therefore we chose a dichotomous analysis. In addition, smaller sample sizes reduced statistical power. We stated clearly the limitation that postprocedural thrombolysis in myocardial infarction flow grade was not assessed by an independent core laboratory.3 Finally, all-cause mortality wa