Decrease in time from hospital arrival to mechanical reperfusion for MI patients in the U.S.
TUESDAY, Aug. 23 (HealthDay News) -- The door-to-balloon (D2B) time (from hospital arrival to mechanical reperfusion) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention in the United States improved between 2005 and 2010, according to a study published online Aug. 22 in Circulation.
Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D., from the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues investigated changes in D2B times for all patients included in the percutaneous coronary intervention acute MI-8 inpatient measure from 2005 to 2010, and reported by hospitals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States. The characteristics of patients who reported for the measure were summarized for each calendar year, and included median time to primary percutaneous coronary intervention, the number and percentage in each group, and the percentage with time to primary percutaneous coronary intervention within 75 and 90 minutes.
The investigators identified a decline in the median D2B time from 96 minutes in the year ending December 2005 to 64 minutes in the three quarters ending September 2010. The percentage of patients who had D2B times less than 90 minutes, and less than 75 minutes increased correspondingly (from 44.2 to 91.4 percent and from 27.3 to 70.4 percent, respectively). The greatest decrease in median times was found in groups that had the highest median times during the first period including patients older than 75 years of age, women, and blacks.
"National progress has been achieved in the treatment of patients with ST-segment-elevation MI who undergo primary percutaneous coronary intervention," the authors write.
One of the study authors disclosed financial ties with a health care company.
Abstract
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