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Only one
in four emergency room patients with acute coronary syndrome
is receiving the proven drugs to prevent blood-clotting that
reduce heart attacks and death, according to Duke University
medical researchers.
According
to the researchers, patients who can benefit from the drugs
in question, known as glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, will
typically arrive at emergency rooms complaining of chest pain,
and not receive these drugs in a timely fashion -- even though
they are at high risk of having a heart attack.
"This
suggests that there is significant room for improvement in
our treatment of these patients"," said Duke cardiologist
Eric Peterson, who presented the results of the study at the
American College of Cardiology meeting in Atlanta. He said
the findings should be a wake-up call to the profession to
develop systems for assuring evidence-based care is provided
to all.
Peterson
conducted the study using the National Registry of Myocardial
Infarction, a databank of patients who have suffered a heart
attack.
Duke cardiologist
Matthew Roe said the key to ensuring that proven therapies
are given to patients in a timely fashion is evaluating patients'
risk of future heart attacks while they are still in the emergency
room.
"If
patients sit in an emergency room for a long time before admission,
it is possible that they may not get the appropriate treatments
until a cardiologist sees them. By then it may be too late
to get the maximum benefit from proven therapies," he
said.
Peterson
and Roe are involved in a campaign to collect detailed data
on how more than 60,000 high-risk heart patients are treated
at 600 hospitals across the U.S. The information will be collected
during the next two years and feedback will be provided to
individual hospitals on how their treatment patterns adhere
to guidelines established by the American College of Cardiology
and American Heart Association.
Source:
Heart
Disease Week of March 24, 2002
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