SPECIAL ARTICLE
Pre-Hospital 12-Lead Electrocardiography Programs
A Call for Implementation by Emergency Medical Services Systems Providing Advanced Life SupportNational Heart Attack Alert Program (NHAAP) Coordinating Committee; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); National Institutes of Health
J. Lee Garvey, MD*,
Bruce A. MacLeod, MD, FACEP ,
George Sopko, MD ,
Mary M. Hand, MSPH, RN ,* on behalf of the National Heart Attack Alert Program (NHAAP) Coordinating Committee
* Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
Manuscript received August 4, 2005;
accepted August 23, 2005.
* Reprint requests and correspondence: Mary Hand, MSPH, RN, c/o NHLBI Information Center, P.O. Box 30105, Bethesda, Maryland 20824 (Email: NHLBIinfo{at}nhlbi.nih.gov).
Emergency medical services (EMS) providers who administer advanced life support should include diagnostic 12-lead electrocardiography programs as one of their services. Evidence demonstrates that this technology can be readily used by EMS providers to identify patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) before a patient's arrival at a hospital emergency department. Earlier identification of STEMI patients leads to faster artery-opening treatment with fibrinolytic agents, either in the pre-hospital setting or at the hospital. Alternatively, a reperfusion strategy using percutaneous coronary intervention can be facilitated by use of pre-hospital 12-lead electrocardiography (P12ECG). Analysis of the cost of providing this service to the community must include consideration of the demonstrated benefits of more rapid treatment of patients with STEMI and the resulting time savings advantage shown to accompany the use of P12ECG programs.
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Abbreviations and Acronyms
| | ACC = American College of Cardiology | | ACI-TIPI = acute cardiac ischemia time-insensitive predictive instrument | | ACS = acute coronary syndromes | | AHA = American Heart Association | | AHRQ = Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality | | ALS = advanced life support | | AMI = acute myocardial infarction | | ED = emergency department | | EMS = emergency medical services | | EMT-P = emergency medical technician-paramedic | | PCI = percutaneous coronary intervention | | P12ECG = pre-hospital 12-lead electrocardiography | | STEMI = ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction |
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