Introduction: The transtelephonic electrocardiogram has been shown to have a great value in the management of out-of-hospital chest pain emergencies. In our previous study it not only improved the pre-hospital medical therapy and time to intervention, but also the in-hospital mortality in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. It was hypothesised that the higher in-hospital survival rate could be due to improved transtelephonic electrocardiogram-based pre-hospital management (electrocardiogram interpretation and teleconsultation) and consequently, better coronary perfusion of patients at the time of hospital admission. To test this hypothesis, our database of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients was evaluated retrospectively for predictors (including transtelephonic electrocardiogram) that may influence in-hospital survival.
Methods and results: The ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients were divided into two groups, namely (a) hospital death patients (n = 49) and (b) hospital survivors (control, n = 726). Regarding pre-hospital medical management, the transtelephonic electrocardiogram-based triage (odds ratio 0.48, confidence interval 0.25-0.92, p = 0.0261) and the administration of optimal pre-hospital medical therapy (acetylsalicylic acid and/or clopidogrel and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor) were the most important independent predictors for a decreased risk in our model. At the same time, age, acute heart failure (Killip class >2), successful pre-hospital resuscitation and total occlusion of the infarct-related coronary artery before percutaneous coronary intervention were the most important independent predictors for an increased risk of in-hospital mortality.
Discussion: In ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients, (a) an early transtelephonic electrocardiogram-based teleconsultation and triage, (b) optimal pre-hospital antithrombotic medical therapy and (c) the patency and better perfusion of the infarct-related coronary artery on hospital admission are important predictors of a lower in-hospital mortality rate.
Keywords: Remote consultation; telecardiology; teleconsulting; telemedicine.