No abstract

In order to reduce the delay times from onset of symptoms to arrival in hospital, and increase the use of ambulance in patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI), a media campaign was initiated in an urban area. An initial 3-week intense campaign was followed by a maintenance phase of 1 year. Delay times and ambulance use during the campaign were compared with the previous 21 months. Among patients admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU) due to suspected AMI, the median delay time was reduced from 3 h to 2 h 40 min and the mean delay time was reduced from 11 h 33 min to 7 h 42 min (P less than 0.001). Among patients with confirmed AMI the median delay time was reduced from 3 h to 2 h 20 min and the mean delay time from 10 h to 6 h 27 min (P less than 0.001). We conclude that a 1-year media campaign can reduce delay times in suspected AMI, and that this effect appears to continue at 1 year, but ambulance use seems to be more difficult to influence.

Congestive heart failure is one of the major symptoms accompanying acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The study aimed to describe the occurrence, characteristics and prognosis of congestive heart failure in AMI and to compare post-MI patients with and without congestive heart failure. The methods used included baseline characteristics, initial symptoms, electrocardiogram (ECG), mortality during hospitalization and one year follow-up in consecutive patients with AMI admitted to Sahlgrenska Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden. Congestive heart failure was observed in 51% of the cases. Patients with congestive heart failure were older, more frequently had a history of previous cardiovascular disease, and, less frequently had chest pain on admission to hospital. They had a higher occurrence of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias during initial hospitalization, and their mortality during one year follow-up was 39% as compared to 17% in patients without congestive heart failure (P < 0.001). This difference remained significant when correcting for differences at baseline. Patients with severe congestive heart failure had a one year mortality of 47% vs 31% in patients with moderate congestive heart failure (P < 0.01). Signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure occur in every second patient admitted to hospital due to AMI, and indicate a bad prognosis, which is directly related to the severity of congestive heart failure.

Objective-To identify determinants of an inferior quality of life (QoL) five years after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Setting-University hospital.

The challenge of shortening the delay between the onset of infarction and the start of treatment remains. The campaigns so far have not been proved to be worthwhile and it is not certain that further campaigns will do better. New media campaigns should be run to establish whether a different type of message is more likely to change the behaviour of people in this life-threatening situation.