Primary angioplasty

NEW YORK, June 14 (Praxis Press) Rapid reperfusion after acute myocardial infarction (MI) using thrombolytic therapy reduces mortality, but whether time to primary angioplasty is also related to mortality is unclear. Investigators examined 27,080 patients with acute MI associated with ST-segment elevation or left bundle-branch block who were treated with angioplasty (see paper). Cannon and colleagues found that the odds of in-hospital mortality increased from 41% to 62% when the time to primary angioplasty was more than 2 hours after the patient had arrived at the hospital. Increasing delay from symptom onset to primary angioplasty, however, was not associated with a significant increase in in-hospital mortality. Minimizing the time from patient arrival to primary angioplasty reduces patient mortality.