Cardiovascular News

Discovery to Balloon

The industry’s recommended ‘door to balloon’ protocol is 90 minutes. We can help you start the clock earlier.

 

Every minute counts when a heart attack victim needs to get to the cath lab.

 

A recent study has shown that one-year mortality rates for acute myocardial infarction rise with the delay in treatment by primary angioplasty.¹ And because every minute counts, the American College of Cardiologists (ACC), in partnership with the American Heart Association and others, has launched the ‘Door to Balloon’ (D2B) campaign. Its aim—to reduce the elapsed time from ED arrival to angioplasty to 90 minutes or less.

 

Philips Healthcare is uniquely positioned to help hospitals get patients to the cath lab at top speed.

 

Faster routing

With Philips HeartStart MRx Monitor/Defibrillator, a paramedic can connect ECG leads to a patient suffering from myocardial infarction, and then transmit the 12-Lead ECG data to clinicians in the emergency department. In the ED, clinicians can use the ECG to begin assessing what treatment the incoming patient will need. For example, clinicians might scramble the cath lab team, or prepare thrombolytic therapy.

Since the MRx allows a hospital to begin organizing its resources—before a patient even arrives—it can help dramatically reduce the delay to treatment.

 

Another benefit of a pre-hospital 12-Lead program is to potentially divert the patient to a heart hospital when the 12-Lead ECG shows STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction). Upon arrival at the hospital, the traditional destination is the ED. STEMI patients can bypass the ED altogether and go directly to the cath lab. This can help significantly reduce door to balloon time.

 

From discovery to door

In the ‘door to balloon’ protocol, the clock starts when a patient is brought into the hospital. The MRx allows hospitals and EMS to start the clock earlier, offering a ‘Discovery to Balloon’ solution. All the prep, scheduling, diagnostic and routing activities—which usually start once the patient arrives— can now begin while the patient is en route, saving valuable time.

 

 

The Philips HeartStart MRx monitor/defibrillator:

1. Allows all 12-leads to be displayed at once; streaming the 12-lead ECG (exclusive to Philips).
2. Displays 12-lead ECG interpretation on screen (another Philips exclusive).
3. Transmits 12-lead ECG wirelessly, with Bluetooth technology and internet protocols, to receiving station.
4. Enables fast and easy routing of the 12-lead ECG report to multiple destinations (ED, Cath, ECG management system, Cardiologist, etc) with the press of a button.

Solutions for the whole cardiac cycle of care

The ‘Discovery to Balloon’ solution offered by the MRx is just the starting point of time-saving opportunities in the cycle of cardiac care.

1. Philips suite of CT imaging applications for cardiac assessment includes Cardiac CT Angio, a dedicated program for angioplasty planning.
2. In the cath lab with Ambient Experience, important patient information, including ECG traces, can appear on a mirror/television—while clinicians scrub for the procedure.
3. After treatment, patients can be monitored on an MRx or IntelliVue patient monitor in the CCU.
4. Outside the CCU, quality care can continue with Philips telemetry monitoring in a step-down unit.
5. At home, Philips Motiva  helps discharged patients to stay well—all through a simple television-based interface:
   - promoting healthy behaviors
   - charting improvements
   - connecting remotely to their physicians
6. Finally, the Philips HeartStart Home Defibrillator  offers the patient peace of mind with a device designed to be used by anyone.

From triage to diagnosis to treatment to monitoring—Philips technology can help beat the clock throughout the cardiac cycle of care. 

 

[2007-04-18]

 

¹De Luca G, Suryapranata H, Ottervanger JP, Antman EM. Time delay to treatment and mortality in primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction: every minute of delay counts. Circulation. 2004 Mar 16; 109(10):1223-5.

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