Heart attack patients do best in specialist hospitals

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study shows that patients do best after a heart attack if they attend a hospital where angioplasty is routine.
Angioplasty, a procedure used to widen the blocked arteries in people with heart disease, is a life-saving treatment. But it is not used routinely in all hospitals. A team at the University of Michigan and Yale University now reveal that patients are disadvantaged if they attend a hospital that does angioplasty only 'part time.'

In such hospitals, clot-busting drugs are used at evenings and weekends in place of angioplasty. The study, which covered 37,233 patients, shows that the in-hospital death risk and the risk of delayed treatment were both higher in hospitals where angioplasty was not routinely used. These patients also waited longer for their emergency treatment - more than 90 minutes, the 'window' during which angioplasty is thought to have the edge over clot-busters. The findings suggest that hospitals may want to do more to implement emergency angioplasty and provide round-the-clock care, for the good of heart attack patients.

Source
Circulation January 2006