OBJECTIVES To determine the current door-to-needle time for the administration of fibrinolytics for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in emergency centres (ECs) at three hospitals in Cape Town, and to compare it with the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) recommendation of 30 minutes as a marker of quality of care. METHODS A retrospective review of case notes ...

OBJECTIVES Rapid initiation of intravenous thrombolysis improves patient's outcome in acute stroke. We analyzed inter-center variability and factors that influence the door-to-needle time with a special focus on process measurements in all Austrian stroke units. METHODS Case level data of patients receiving intravenous thrombolysis in the Austrian Stroke Unit Registry were enriched with infor...

Ischaemic stroke can result in approximately 2 million brain neurones being damaged for each minute that it is left untreated. Various trials and studies such as the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders (NINDS) trial, the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study (ECASS), ECASS II, and the Alteplase Thrombolysis for Acute Noninterventional Therapy in Ischemic Stroke (ATLANTIS) study have cl...

Better outcomes are obtained with stroke thrombolysis the more rapidly it is given, both in terms of the patient's level of functional ability and also mortality. Current UK performance targets (outside London) aim for a time of 45 minutes or less. Thrombolysis pathways involve multidisciplinary working across departmental boundaries as well as senior level decision making. Our system used tele...