© 2004 by BMJ Publishing Group & British Cardiac Society
EDITORIAL
Is informed consent possible in acute myocardial infarction?
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Bernard A Foëx
Department of Emergency Medicine, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL, UK bfoex@zen.co.uk
Are patients in acute myocardial infarction sufficiently competent to understand what they are being told?
Keywords: informed consent; myocardial infarction; patient consent
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The study by Ågård and colleagues,1 published in a previous issue of Heart, raises the question of whether or not patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) can give informed consent to their treatment. At its most simple, "Consent is a state of mind: a decision by a patient".2 In practice consent is valid if: (1) the patient is competent; (2) the patient is informed; and (3) consent is freely given. It has been defined as: "an autonomous authorisation by individuals of a medical intervention or of involvement in research... a person must do more than express agreement or comply with a proposal."3
Ågård and colleagues1 reported on a survey of Swedish cardiologists and their perception of the informed consent process in interventional trials in AMI.1 The vast majority (86%) felt that patients were unable to understand all the information given to them, and so, by definition, were unable to
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