Read about the latest news on ECG / EKG Machines

When a patient has a heart attack, the goal of hospitals is to provide emergency angioplasty as rapidly as possible, and within one hour of the patient’s arrival at their facility. This hour is known as the Golden Hour, because during that hour, restoration of arterial blood flow can maximize the patient’s recovery and minimize any permanent damage to the heart muscle. An emergency angioplasty can restore blood flow, even in arteries that are 100 percent blocked.

Time, however, is crucial. Director of Loyola University Hospital’s Cardiovascular Institute, Dr. David Wilber puts it succinctly: “Time is heart muscle.”

Loyola is the first hospital in Illinois to develop a Heart Attack Rapid Response Team, or HARRT. This will consist of having a staff of board certified, experienced cardiologists, nurses, and technicians available at the hospital at all times. Most hospitals do not have these interventional specialists on site at all times, which can cause valuable time and heart muscle to be lost as these on call professionals make their way to the hospital.

One key component in reducing the time it takes for a patient to receive an emergency angioplasty is the presence of 12 lead mobile EKG machines in local ambulances. Paramedics can administer EKGs and transmit the results to the hospital while en route with the patient. A diagnosis can be made, and preparations can take place so that the patient may be immediately taken up to the cardiac cath lab for an emergency angioplasty if one is required. Not all ambulances are currently equipped to administer EKGs, but that number is constantly increasing.

So too is the number of hospitals that are developing 24-hour availability of angioplasty teams. One such hospital, Detroit Medical Center, has been able to reduce the time it takes for a patient to receive emergency angioplasty to only 47 minutes after arrival. This is almost half of the 90 minute window that a combined American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association task force recommends. Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, and Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, also have angioplasty teams available around the clock.

Technorati Tags: ekg machine, EKG Machines, medical equipment