• Bikash Majumder, Chrysostomos Mavroudis, ManFai Shiu, and Roby D Rakhit.
• Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, CF14 4XW, UK. bikashmaj@hotmail.com
• Am J Emerg Med. 2012 Sep 1;30(7):1118-24.

AimsAdmitting patients directly to a heart attack center (HAC) catheter laboratory for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) bypassing the emergency department (ED) might be beneficial in delivering treatment of ST-elevation myocardial infarction with superior outcome.MethodsIn this analysis, the clinical outcome of service redesign of the PPCI pathway from ED triggered to a direct catheter laboratory HAC access was assessed in 361 consecutive patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with a PPCI.ResultsA total of 200 patients were admitted via the ED, and 161 were admitted directly to the HAC. Door-to-balloon times and call-to-balloon times were significantly better in the HAC group (median [interquartile range] door-to-balloon times and call-to-balloon times were 39 [26, 53] and 106 [91, 132] minutes, respectively) in comparison with the ED group (82 [49,120; P < .0001] and 130 [103, 164] minutes, respectively [P = .0005]). A nonsignificant trend to a lower 30-day (5% in the HAC group and 6% in the ED group) and 17-month (8% in HAC group and 11% in ED group) mortality was seen in the HAC group (P = .63). Composite end point analysis of left ventricular ejection fraction less than 50%, thrombolysis in myocardial infarction grades 0 and 1, and myocardial blush scores 0 and 1 showed that a significantly higher number of patients in the ED group experienced at least 1 of the composite events in comparison with the patients in the HAC group (P = .01).ConclusionA direct-access catheter laboratory (HAC) model of PPCI bypassing the ED should be the favored approach to service delivery with superior outcome.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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