A new report by the National Heart Attack Alert Program identifies patients who are most likely to delay in seeking help for signs and symptoms of an acute myocardial infarction (MI) and provides strategies for health care professionals to prevent treatment delays in such patients.
Such high-risk patients include people who had a previous heart attack or who have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease or clinical atherosclerotic disease of the aorta or peripheral or carotid arteries. The report outlines strategies for counseling such patients and includes some practical tools for clinicians, including a patient advisory form and a telephone triage algorithm for medical office settings.
A free copy of the report, Educational Strategies to Prevent Prehospital Delay in Patients at High Risk for Acute Myocardial Infarction (NIH publication No. 97-3787F) can be obtained by contacting the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Information Center by telephone . . . [Full Text of this Article]
