DURHAM, N.C. March 13 2006 - When emergency
medical technicians (EMTs) wirelessly transmit eletrocardiograms
(ECG) directly to a cardiologist's hand-held device, heart attack
patients can potentially receive direct clot removal in half the
usual time, according to cardiologists at Duke University Medical
Center and NorthEast Medical Center, Concord, N.C.
Cutting this "door-to-reperfusion" time is critical,
the cardiologists said, because the sooner a patient suffering
from a heart attack receives an artery-opening procedure, the
more likely heart muscle can be saved, and that the patient will
potentially derive a survival benefit.
While the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American
Heart Association recommend that patients have their arteries
opened directly within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital
the NorthEast Medical Center team was able to cut that
time to 50 minutes. The national average "door-to-reperfusion"
is about 100 minutes, the researchers said.
The
results of the pilot project were presented March 13, 2006, by
Duke Clinical Research Institute cardiology fellow George Adams,
M.D., during the 55th annual scientific sessions of the ACC in
Atlanta. His study is one of five finalists for an ACC Young Investigator
Award.
The team achieved this significant time savings by directly linking
EMTs with cardiologists and bypassing the hospital's emergency
department for the small proportion of those patients with chest
pain whose ECG is distinctly diagnostic. In the current study,
specially trained EMTs transmitted ECG tracings electronically
from the scene or in the ambulance to an on-call cardiologist's
personal digital assistant (PDA). The cardiologist -- on spotting
the definitive signs of a heart attack -- could mobilize the catheterization
laboratory while the patient was en route to the hospital.
While the time savings achieved in the current pilot project
are significant, the researchers point out that the results will
need to replicated in more diverse settings. In the current project,
NorthEast is staffed by a small number of interventional cardiologists
at one hospital with one ambulance service. Duke researchers are
currently organizing a 12-site study across the U.S. in larger
and smaller cities with different sized hospitals and ambulance
services.
"We found that the pre-hospital wireless transmission of
an ECG directly to a cardiologist's hand-device significantly
reduced the time from emergency room door to reperfusion,"
Adams said. "When the cardiologist can directly see an ECG,
it clarifies the decision to mobilize all the personnel necessary
for the cath lab to be ready to go when the patient arrives."
The researchers were studying a specific kind of heart attack
known as an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
When a cardiologist spots a major elevation of the tracing in
the ST portion of an ECG study, there is little question that
patient is having a heart attack, Adams said.
In the final two years of the four-year pilot project, the team
enrolled patients with a suspected STEMI who were taken to NorthEast
Medical Center. During the intervention phase of trial, the team
enrolled 101 self-transported patients, and 24 ambulance patients
where the wireless ECG transmission was successful, and 19 patients
for whom the wireless transmission was unsuccessful.
"The median 'door-to-reperfusion' time for those with a
successful transmission was 50 minutes, significantly faster than
the 96 minutes for those who transported themselves and the 78
minutes for those whose transmission failed," Adams said.
Key to the success of the project, the researchers said, is the
training of the EMTs. Currently, almost all ambulance services
are equipped to perform an ECG at the scene or in the ambulance.
However, for any such project to be successful, the researchers
said, an EMT needs to be able to spot tell-tale abnormalities,
since only about five percent of patients experiencing chest pains
need an immediate catheterization.
"Wireless ECG transmission gets at the 'heart' of the problem,
which is communication." said Duke cardiologist Galen Wagner,
M.D., senior member of the research team. "We have ability
to transport patients and we are good at clearing clots from arteries
the challenge is to remove the barriers in between."
Also importantly, said the researchers, the findings add further
evidence that patients or families should always call for an ambulance
instead of driving themselves to a hospital if a heart attack
is suspected. While it may seem intuitive that a patient could
get themselves to a hospital sooner, they will typically have
to go through the emergency room triage system before actually
going to the catheterization lab, if appropriate, noted the researchers.
Interestingly, as the project became known to Cabarrus County
residents over the four-year period, the researchers noticed a
decline in the number of potential heart attack patients transporting
themselves to the hospital.
While the upcoming trial will test wireless transmission capabilities
in a number of different settings, it will also study the effects
of shortening the "door-to-reperfusion" time on mortality
and heart muscle salvage. It is estimated that more than 500,000
Americans will come to a hospital with an STEMI.
The pilot project was supported by the William T. Morris Foundation,
N.Y., the Duke Endowment, Charlotte, N.C., and Welch Allyn, Skaneateles
Falls, N.Y., which provided some of the equipment. The investigators
have no financial interest in Welch Allyn.