This latest installment in our case discussion series is submitted by Tariq Ahmad, MD, MPH. We encourage members to submit cases that they believe warrant discussion. Selected cases will be presented to the community, and case authors will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. A 70-year-old woman presents to the ED with an anterior STEMI….

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At a recent committee meeting, my hospital’s administration announced new quality measures and targets. Striving for top performance, the board of the hospital system set the bar extraordinarily high. The bonuses of senior management are tied to achieving the targets, so the announcement had everyone’s attention. One target that caught my interest was for achieving…

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Non-STEMI patients delayed going to the hospital for as long in 2006 as they did in 2001, according to a report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Henry Ting and colleagues analyzed data from 104,622 non-STEMI patients enrolled in the CRUSADE (Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes With Early Implementation of…

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Efforts to speed delivery of PCI to STEMI patients have focused on shortening the door-to-balloon time. Now a group of Danish researchers propose that efforts to improve care must include assessment of treatment from the time of the patient’s first contact with the emergency medical system. Analyzing historical data from 6209 MI patients who received…

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Patients who present with MI and are taking aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, or statins are more likely to have a non-STEMI than a STEMI, according to findings from a large Swedish registry published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Lena Björck and colleagues analyzed data from over 100,000 consecutive admissions for MI. Some 61% of STEMI…

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PLATO is one of the most impressive trials in recent years, demonstrating substantial benefits for ticagrelor over clopidogrel in a wide population of ACS patients. However, patients enrolled in the US were found to have no benefit from ticagrelor, and experts have been unable to agree on a cause. Possible factors could include much higher doses…

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PLATO is one of the most impressive trials in recent years, demonstrating substantial benefits for ticagrelor over clopidogrel in a wide population of ACS patients. However, patients enrolled in the US showed no benefit from ticagrelor, and experts have been unable to agree on a cause. Possible factors could include much higher doses of aspirin used…

This content is exclusive to CardioExchange. To continue reading, please log in or request an invitation.