Myocardial infarction centres: the way forward.

The article reports that treatment of patients with acute ST elevation myocardial infarction with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a superior reperfusion strategy compared to on-site thrombolysis. Patient delay (time from onset of symptoms until calling for help) is still the major contributor of treatment delay (time from onset of symptoms until initiation of reperfusion treatment). Media campaigns have failed to yield a long lasting reduction in patient delay. Thus, adapting a trauma team approach, including a regional strategy of prehospital diagnosis and referral of patients directly to interventional centers, may be one of the new successes in modern cardiology.