Study Shows Heart Attacks Best Treated by Coordinating Prehospital and In-Hospital Care

Northwell Health (formerly the North Shore-LIJ Health System) issued the following news release: A new study co-authored by Peter Berger, MD, senior vice president of Clinical Research for Northwell Health and professor of Cardiology and Medicine at the Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine, shows that when pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS), emergency room staff in hospitals, and cardiac catheterization laboratory staff all work together in a coordinated manner, people suffering from deadly heart attacks received life-saving treatment sooner. These findings were published today in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation. ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (frequently referred to as STEMI) is a deadly type of heart attack that happens when the blood supply to the heart through one of the heart's three arteries suddenly becomes completely blocked by a blood clot. The likelihood of death and severe heart damage from STEM1 is dramatically reduced by quickly opening the blocked artery by an angioplasty procedure with a stent, also known as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI); that procedure is performed in a catheterization laboratory in most large hospitals. A PCI promptly restores normal blood flow through the blocked artery. However, among the more than 250,000 people who have a STEMI each year in the US, only approximately half are treated within the recommended 90 minutes from the time the patient first...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: News Cardiac & Resuscitation Patient Care Source Type: news