Editorial
Catheter based treatment for all patients with acute coronary syndromes: is it possible for the UK NHS to cope with this problem?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The pace of interventional cardiology is accelerating across Europe, although there is wide variation in provision.1 The enthusiasm for immediate or very early intervention in patients with acute ischaemic coronary syndromes places huge demands on health care services, demands that are likely to increase as the "urgency to intervene (in order to reperfuse)" philosophy spreads. What could be the implications for such a policy for the UK National Health Service?
Each year approximately 300 000 patients suffer an acute myocardial
infarction in the UK, of whom approximately 200 000 reach hospital
alive. The 28 day case fatality rate for these patients remains
unacceptably high at between 20% and 25%.2 3 Over the
past 25 years, registry data have shown a relatively stable admission
rate for patients with acute myocardial infarction, but an enormous
increase in patients with non-infarct ischaemic pain, a ratio of at
least 5:1.4 Of these, perhaps as many as 20% fulfill
diagnostic
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Joint Working Group on Coronary Angioplasty of the, , British Cardiovascular Intervention Society,
(2000). Coronary angioplasty: guidelines for good practice and training. Heart
83: 224-235
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Drugs: cardiovascular system
-
Interventional cardiology
-
Percutaneous intervention
-
Clinical diagnostic tests
- Acute coronary syndromes
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
