Impact on Delay Times and Characteristics of Patients Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in the Southern Metropolitan Area of Barcelona After Implementation of the Infarction Code Program

• Published in: Revista española de cardiología (English ed.) 2012-10, Vol.65 (10), p.911-918
• Main Authors: Gómez-Hospital, Joan Antoni, Dallaglio, Paolo Domenico, Sánchez-Salado, Jose Carlos, Ariza, Albert, Homs, Silvia, Lorente, Victoria, Ferreiro, Jose Luis, Gomez-Lara, Josep, Romaguera, Rafael, Salazar-Mendiguchía, Joel, Teruel, Luis, Cequier, Ángel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Angioplastia primaria; Código Infarto; Infarction Code; Infarto agudo de miocardio; Mortalidad; Mortality; Myocardial infarction; Primary percutaneous coronary intervention
• ISSN: 1885-5857; 1885-5857
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rec.2012.06.006

A standardized protocol of emergent transfer for primary percutaneous coronary intervention for patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction, defined as the Infarction Code, was implemented in June 2009 in the Catalan regional health system. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the new protocol on delay times, number of procedures and clinical characteristics compared with the previous period in the population of patients referred to our hospital. All consecutive patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention in our hospital were prospectively registered. The clinical characteristics, delay times and mortality in the follow-up of the protocol implementation period (June 2009-May 2010) were analyzed and compared with the previous year (June 2008-May 2009). During the protocol period, 514 patients were included, compared with 241 in the previous year. Age, cardiovascular risk factors, anterior myocardial infarction and procedure characteristics were similar in the 2 groups. The first medical contact to balloon time was lower in the protocol period (median time 120min vs 88min; P