Industry news: The Philips HeartStart MRx Monitor / Defibrillator

As soon as a heart attack occurs, the heart muscle begins to die, which is why reducing the time between heart attack and treatment is vital for the patient's long-term recovery[1]. As a result, the American College of Cardiology, in partnership with the American Heart Association and others around the world, has launched the ‘Door to Balloon' (D2B) campaign. Its aim: to reduce the elapsed time from the arrival of the victim at the hospital to angioplasty to 90 minutes or less.

Philips defibrillator reduces time from heart attack to treatment.

ACC-AHA guidelines refer to several papers that show that when the D2B time is shortened, the survival rate goes up. Every minute of delay in treatment of patients with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) causes the risk of one-year mortality to increase by 7.5% for each 30-minute delay.

Another recent study of patients treated by primary angioplasty, increased mortality rates were recorded once the D2B time exceeded two hours. Further data from randomised trials indicated that primary angioplasty and fibrinolytic therapy yielded equivalent mortality reductions if the angioplasty is delayed by 50 minutes.

There are two ways to restore blood flow to myocardium through a blocked artery – Fibrinolytics (‘clot buster' drugs) can be injected intravenously or by percutaneous cardiac intervention (PCI). PCI is a mechanical reperfusion which consists of a balloon being inserted at the site of a clot and then being inflated.

Irrespective of the method employed to open the blocked artery, the critical issue regarding the treatment's success is the time from the onset of the attack to the time when the artery is opened. As the doctors and hospitals can only control the process once the patient arrives at their door, it is critical that the Emergency Department (ED) shortens the time from arrival at ED to the time of treatment.

With the help of the Philips HeartStart MRx Monitor/Defibrillator the D2B process can commence before the patient even arrives at the ED. The MRx and its 12-lead transfer station enables paramedics to transmit patient data from the ambulance to a PCI-capable hospital's emergency department. Upon reception at the hospital, clinicians can use the ECG data to begin assessing what treatment the incoming patient will need. By allowing a hospital to begin organizing its resources prior to the patient's arrival, the MRx can help reduce the time to treatment.

In addition to transmitting ECG data to the hospital prior to the patients' arrival, the MRx integrates seamlessly with a hospital's ECG management system, TraceMasterVue (TMV), enabling critical patient information to be seen where it is needed – even in the Cath Lab.

In the case of an acute coronary syndrome being discovered in a small hospital or primary care centre where PCI cannot be performed, but the hospital is connected to a larger hospital's TMV ECG management system, the ECG that was taken with a regular cardiograph can easily be forwarded to the PCI centre for decision making and Cath Lab preparation.

Philips provides a solution so complete that it covers ambulance services, primary care centers and even the Cath Lab.