Delays to PPCI observed in the references used for recommendation of a First Medical Contact (FMC) to PPCI delay below 60 min in the recent European Society of Cardiology 2012 STEMI-guidelines
| References | Emergency medical service call to arrival on scene | On scene delay | Transport delay | Door-to-balloon delay (D2B) | Overall ‘FMC to PCI’ delay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinto et al2 | NA | NA | NA | 116 min* | NA but >>>D2B delay! |
| Steg et al1 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA but at least 102 min† |
*In the Pinto et al reference D2B delays were presented for four groups varying from 91 to 179 min. The weighted mean D2B delay is presented here.
†None of the many papers from the CAPTIM trial have presented ‘FMC to PCI’ delay. Time to PPCI was 190 min and time to randomisation was 108 min. Adding 10 min for emergency medical service response time and just 10 min on scene before randomisation, this would add up to a cumulative ‘FMC to PPCI’ delay of approximately 102 min.