Quick action key to reducing heart attack toll

Patients need to know that heart attacks aren't always accompanied by the crushing chest pain of a "Hollywood heart attack."

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Oct. 1, 2001.

Washington -- Physicians are being strongly urged to explain to patients the importance of receiving prompt medical attention if they suspect they are having a heart attack.

"Physicians can greatly reduce death and disability among heart attack patients by educating them about the symptoms of a heart attack and motivating them to call 911," said David Faxon, MD, president of the American Heart Assn.

The two major treatments for acute heart attack -- clot-busting medications and primary angioplasty -- are most beneficial when administered within the first hour after the onset of symptoms, Dr. Faxon said.

Dr. Faxon, chief of cardiology at the University of Chicago Hospitals, was appearing at a joint Sept. 10 news conference with National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Director Claude Lenfant, MD, and Bruce MacLeod, MD, chair of the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. Dr. MacLeod was representing the National Assn. of Emergency Medical Services Physicians.

They were announcing the start of "Act in Time to Heart Attack Signs," a new campaign to enlist physicians' help in educating patients about heart attack risk and survival.

The campaign was designed to try to alter statistics that show only one in five patients gets to a hospital emergency department in time to take advantage of the major advances in heart attack treatment.

Most patients wait for two to four hours before seeking help, said the groups, and this delay is a major factor in the nearly half million heart attack deaths in the U.S. each year. [...]