Door-to-balloon time in patients undergoing primary angioplasty and therapeutic decision on acute myocardial infarction

Objectives: In the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (MI), the time delay to achieve reperfusion of the infarction-related artery has been linked to survival rates. Primary or direct angioplasty has been found to be an excellent means of achieving reperfusion in acute ST-elevation MI compared to thrombolytic therapy in randomized trials. However, no mortality benefit of primary angioplasty over thrombolysis was observed in several registries, in which delays in performing primary angioplasty were longer. Our objectives were to evaluate the door-to-balloon time (DBT) in our institution and investigate its relationship with clinical and prognostic variables.