Editorial
Acute myocardial infarction: bring the treatment to the patient
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In the early 1980s it was determined that a myocardial infarction is usually caused by an acute thrombotic obstruction of a coronary artery. Since that time various pharmacological and mechanical treatment strategies have been developed that aim at rapid, complete, and persistent reperfusion of intracoronary blood flow. In general, these reperfusion strategies contributed considerably to improving the patient's prognosis, both short and long term.1-5 There are, however, differences in clinical effectiveness between several treatment strategies, and the combined evidence of randomised clinical trials is favourable for primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) compared with administration of a thrombolytic agent.2 This, however, does not imply that the mechanical approach should be the strategy of choice in all circumstances.
Experimental studies demonstrated that necrosis of viable myocardial
tissue mainly happens during the 30 to 90 minutes following coronary
occlusion. Consequently, if the coronary artery can be reperfused
during this period, extensive myocardial necrosis can
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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Benger, J R
(2002). The case for urban prehospital thrombolysis. Emerg. Med. J.
19: 441-443
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Drugs: cardiovascular system
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