ABSTRACT
Prehospital Identification Utilization of prehospital EKGs for early diagnosis of STEMI patients is essential but will only be effective if it includes prehospital notification and cardiac catheterization laboratory activation. In a recent pooled analysis of 10 separate STEMI systems, the use of prehospital EKGs in 2712 consecutive patient resulted in 86% of patients being treated with a doorto-balloon time <90 minutes, a substantial improvement over the reported national average of 42% (29).
