Prehospital thrombolysis. Evaluation of preliminary experiences at Val-de-Marne]

Benefits of thrombolysis have been shown to be greater when therapy is administered early, and this led us to consider the value of starting thrombolytic treatment in the patient's home. However, this implies the transfer of responsibility of patient management from the cardiologist to the physician in charge of the mobile emergency care team. A study was undertaken in the Val-de-Marne department to assess the benefits and risks of this therapeutic approach. The first phase was designed to evaluate the reliability of the emergency care team's diagnosis and the second phase of the study was a randomised double blind prehospital therapeutic trial of a thrombolytic agent, acylated streptokinase (intravenous bolus of 30 units in 4 minutes) against placebo. The nature of prehospital treatment was revealed on hospital admission and thrombolytic therapy was immediately given to those patients allocated to placebo at home providing the admitting cardiologist confirmed the indication. A total of 100 patients were included; 57 were allocated to thrombolytic therapy and 43 to placebo in the prehospital phase. The diagnosis of acute coronary insufficiency was confirmed in all cases and 97 p. 100 of patients had signs of acute myocardial infarction. No complications were attributable to prehospital administration of the thrombolytic. The average time gain in instituting treatment was 60 minutes. At control coronary angiography, 72 p. 100 of the coronary arteries thought to the responsible for the infarct were shown to be patent. The global left ventricular ejection fraction of patients treated with thrombolysis at home was 56.7 p. 100 compared with 53.4 p. 100 in the placebo group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)