Israel Matzav

Israelis take too long to get to hospital, but heart attack mortality rate down 50% since 2000

Despite taking an average of nearly two hours to get to the hospital after a heart attack starts, the mortality rate from heart attacks for Israelis has dropped from 5.4 % in 2000 to 2.2% by 2010. By comparison, the mortality rate in the United States for heart attack victims in 2010 was 16.2%.

The study, the full results of which are to be released at a conference next week in Tel Aviv, says that over 75% of heart attack victims are men and the average age of a victim is 63.5. In 2000, 26% of men who had a cardiac arrest suffered a repeat, related occurrence within the next month, while in 2010 only 10% had a repeat heart attack or stroke.

The decline in mortality is credited to expanded treatment facilities and an aggressive program of catheter angiography, a treatment that can be used to quickly determine if an artery is blocked, enabling “immediate opening of the artery while enabling optimal medical therapy on [hospital] admission,” said Dr. Amit Segev, Israel Heart Society head.

The data indicated that Israelis take an average of nearly two hours (111 minutes) to arrive at the hospital after the onset of heart attack symptoms, a long time in a situation where every minute counts. For women, that figure is even higher — more than 130 minutes on average.

Hmmm.

Labels: heart disease

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:50 PM