Prehospital 12-Lead ECG to Triage ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction and Emergency Department Activation of the Infarct Team Significantly Improves Door-to-Balloon Times: Ambulance Victoria and MonashHEART Acute Myocardial Infarction (MonAMI) 12-Lead ECG Project

BACKGROUND—American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend >75% of patients with an ST-elevation myocardial infarction receive primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PPCI) within 90 minutes. Despite these recommendations, this goal has been difficult to achieve. METHODS AND RESULTS—We conducted a prospective interventional study involving 349 patients undergoing PPCI at a single tertiary referral institution to determine the impact of prehospital 12-lead ECG triage and emergency department activation of the infarct team on door-to-balloon time (D2BT). The median D2BT of all patients (n=107) who underwent PPCI after field ECG and emergency department activation of the infarct team (MonashHEART Acute Myocardial Infarction [MonAMI] group) was 56 minutes (interquartile range, 36.5 to 70) compared with the median time of a contemporary group (n=122) undergoing PPCI during the same period but not receiving field triage (non-MonAMI group) of 98 minutes (73 to 126.45). The median D2BT time of 120 consecutive patients who underwent PPCI before initiation of the project (pre-MonAMI group) was 101.5 minutes (72.5 to 134; P