Good news for heart attack patients who wind up in the emergency room and require an artery-opening procedure called an angioplasty: nearly all of the procedures are now performed within the recommended 90 minutes from hospital arrival. The new research, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, found that in 2010, over 90 percent of patients with the most common type of acute heart attack received an angioplasty within the recommended time limit compared to less than half that in 2005. By studying data from about 300,000 patients undergoing emergency angioplasty, researchers from the Yale University School of Medicine found that the median time from hospital admission to emergency angioplasty had decreased from 96 minutes to 64 between 2005 and 2010.
Since about 250,000 people suffer from such heart attacks each year, this dramatic improvement in response time is a milestone in medical progress, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. This is an example of how excellent results can be achieved when previous studies are gradually intgegrated into clinical practice. He adds, It is essential that these heart attack patients receive an angioplasty promptly otherwise they can suffer severe complications like congestive heart failure, or even sudden death. That s why the improvement in angioplasty response time is so important.
