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Background Among patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), rapid reperfusion is associated with improved mortality. As such, door-to-needle (D2N) and door-to-balloon (D2B) times have become metrics of quality of care and targets for intense quality improvement. Methods The National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI) collected data regarding reperfusion therapy, its timing and in-hospital mortality among STEMI patients from 1990 through 2006. Results Since 1990, NRMI has enrolled 1,374,232 STEMI patients at 2,157 hospitals. Among those, 774,279 (56.3%) were eligible for reperfusion upon arrival. The proportion receiving fibrinolytic therapy fell from 52.5% in 1990 to 27.6% in 2006 ( P P P P P Conclusions Since 1990, there has been a progressive decline in D2N and D2B time among reperfusion-eligible STEMI patients. These improvements have contributed, at least in part, to a progressive decline in mortality.

Although ST elevation (STEMI) and non-ST elevation (NSTEMI) myocardial infarction (AMI) have been the focus of intense clinical investigation, limited information exists on characteristics and hospital mortality of patients not enrolled in clinical trials. Previous large databases have reported declining mortality of patients with STEMI but have not noted substantial mortality change among those with NSTEMI.The National Registry of Myocardial Infarction enrolled 2,515,106 patients at 2,157 US hospitals from 1990 to 2006. Of these, we evaluated 1,950,561 with diagnoses reflecting acute myocardial ischemia on admission.From 1990 to 2006, the proportion of NSTEMI increased from 14.2% to 59.1% (P.0001), whereas the proportion of STEMI decreased. Mean age increased (from 64.1 to 66.4 years, P.0001) as did the proportion of females (from 32.4% to 37.0%, P.0001). Patients were less likely to report prior angina, prior AMI, or family history of coronary artery disease but more likely to report history of diabetes, hypertension, current smoking, heart failure, prior revascularization, stroke, and hyperlipidemia. From 1994 to 2006, hospital mortality fell among all patients (10.4% to 6.3%), STEMI (11.5% to 8.0%), and NSTEMI (7.1% to 5.2%), (all P.0001). After adjustment for baseline covariates, hospital mortality fell among all patients by 23.6% (odds ratio [OR] 0.764, 95% CI 0.744-0.785), STEMI by 24.2% (OR 0.758, 0.732-0.784), and NSTEMI by 22.6% (OR 0.774, 0.741-0.809), all P.001.This large, observational database from 1990 to 2006 shows increasing prevalence of NSTEMI and, despite higher risk profile on presentation, falling risk-adjusted hospital mortality in patients with either STEMI or NSTEMI.

Background Trends in the use of guideline-based treatment for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as well as its association with patient outcomes have not been summarized in a large, longitudinal study. Furthermore, it is unknown whether gender-, race-, and age-based care disparities have narrowed over time. Methods and Results Using the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction database, we analyzed 2,515,106 patients with AMI admitted to 2,157 US hospitals between July 1990 and December 2006 to examine trends overall and in select subgroups of guideline-based admission, procedural, and discharge therapy use. The contribution of temporal improvements in acute care therapies to declines in in-hospital mortality was examined using logistic regression analysis. From 1990 to 2006, the use of all acute guideline-recommended therapies administered rose significantly for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and patients with non–ST-segment myocardial infarction but remained below 90% for most therapies. Cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention use increased in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and patients with non–ST-segment myocardial infarction, whereas coronary bypass surgery use declined in both groups. Despite overall care improvements, women, blacks, and patients ≥75 years old were significantly less likely to receive revascularization or discharge lipid-lowering therapy relative to their counterparts. Temporal improvements in acute therapies may account for up to 37% of the annual decline in risk for in-hospital AMI mortality. Conclusion Adherence to American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology practice guidelines has improved care of patients with AMI and is associated with significant reductions in in-hospital mortality rates. However, persistent gaps in overall care as well as care disparities remain and suggest the need for ongoing quality improvement efforts.

Prior studies have suggested that young blacks with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) may have higher hospital mortality rates than whites of similar age. However, the influence of age and race on short-term death has not been explored in detail. We examined the relation of age and race on short-term death in a large AMI population and ascertained the factors that may have contributed to differences in mortality rates.We compared the crude and adjusted hospital mortality rates stratified by age among 40,903 blacks and 501,995 whites with AMI enrolled in the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction-2 in 1482 participating US hospitals from June 1994 through March 1998.Overall crude mortality was lower among blacks compared with whites (10.9% vs 12.0%, P.0001). However, blacks had a significantly higher crude mortality rate compared with the whites in the age groups65 years (45 years, and 5-year age groups between 45 and 64 years). There was a statistically significant interaction between age and black race on hospital death (P value for interaction.001). Each 5-year decrement in age from 85 years was associated with 7.2% higher odds of death in blacks compared with whites (95% CI, 5.7% to 7.6%). After adjusting for differences in the baseline, clinical presentation, early treatment, and hospital characteristics, 5-year decrements in age was still associated with increases in the odds for death in blacks compared with whites (5.4%; 95% CI, 3.6% to 7.2%). This interaction between age and black race was present in both sexes but was stronger among men.Blacks younger than 65 years had higher hospital mortality rates compared with whites hospitalized for AMI, and decreasing age was associated with progressively higher risk of hospital death for blacks. Differences in the clinical presentation, early treatment, and hospital characteristics could only partly explain this age-race interaction.

Immediate reperfusion therapy to restore coronary blood flow is recommended for all eligible patients with acute myocardial infarction. However, reperfusion therapy is reportedly underutilized among African Americans, even when they are eligible. Reasons for the lack of use have not been fully explored.We examined the demographic, clinical, and treatment data of 10,469 African Americans with acute myocardial infarction who were eligible for reperfusion therapy, enrolled in the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction-2 from June 1994 through March 1998.The mean age was 62.58 (+/-14.4) years, and 44.7% were female. Although eligible, 47% of the African Americans in this study did not receive reperfusion therapy. In a multivariate analysis, the absence of chest pain at presentation (odds ratio [OR] 0.31, 95% CI 0.26-0.37) and initial admission diagnoses other than definite myocardial infarction (OR for receipt of reperfusion0.12) were the strongest predictors of lack of early reperfusion therapy. Progressive delays in hospital arrival and hospital evaluation predicted a lower likelihood of early reperfusion. Prior stroke (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.50-0.78), myocardial infarction (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.65-0.86), and congestive heart failure (OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.40-0.60) were all associated with lack of reperfusion therapy.Almost half of eligible African American patients with myocardial infarction did not receive reperfusion therapy. Potential reasons may include atypical presentation, patient and institutional delay, and underappreciation of myocardial infarction by care providers. Strategies to address these factors may improve the rate of use of reperfusion therapy.

Background Chest pain/discomfort (CP) is the hallmark symptom of acute myocardial infarction (MI), but some patients with MI present without CP. We hypothesized that MI type (ST-segment elevation MI [STEMI] or non-STEMI [NSTEMI]) may be associated with the presence or absence of CP. Methods We investigated the association between CP at presentation and MI type, hospital care, and mortality among 1,143,513 patients with MI in the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI) from 1994 to 2006. Results Overall, 43.6% of patients with NSTEMI and 27.1% of patients with STEMI presented without CP. For both MI type, patients without CP were older, were more frequently female, had more diabetes or history of heart failure, were more likely to delay hospital arrival, and were less likely to receive evidence-based medical therapies and invasive cardiac procedures. Multivariable analysis indicated that NSTEMI (vs STEMI) was the strongest predictor of atypical symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI], 1.93 [1.91-1.95]). Within the 4 CP/MI type categories, hospital mortality was highest for no CP/STEMI (27.8%), followed by no CP/NSTEMI (15.3%) and CP/STEMI (9.6%), and was lowest for CP/NSTEMI (5.4%). The adjusted odds ratio of mortality was 1.38 (1.35-1.41) for no CP (vs CP) in the STEMI group and 1.31 (1.28-1.34) in the NSTEMI group. Conclusions Hospitalized patients with NSTEMI were nearly 2-fold more likely to present without CP than patients with STEMI. Patients with MI without CP were less quickly diagnosed and treated and had higher adjusted odds of hospital mortality, regardless of whether they had ST-segment elevation.

Efforts to improve the quality of medical care increasingly permeate modern medicine. Recent cardiovascular care innovations such as drug-eluting stents, cardiac defibrillators, computed tomography angiography of the heart, and cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitors among many others have attracted considerable national attention. In the face of this technology explosion, there are multiple long-established therapies that improve survival after myocardial infarction but are not always fully adopted. Examples of the latter are smoking cessation counseling, h-blocker therapy, antiplatelet agents, statins, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, especially when left ventricular ejection fraction is b0.40. These bolderQ therapies have been included in evidence-based guidelines and adherence to them is known to have a profound impact. Based on evidence-based guidelines, quality performance measures are now widely used to compare providers and to improve care by feeding back their performance to the individual providers. Commonly, such feedback involves a comparison of individual provider performance to a bbenchmarkQ level of performance. Frequently, the benchmark used is the median (or mean) performance on a given measure. Predictably, from the statistical definition of median, about half of a provider group will perform worse than the median performance on any given measure. Thus, setting a benchmark based on average performance could be viewed as encouraging mediocrity. To address the above, previous work such as the achievable benchmarks of care (ABC) methodology has focused on data-driven definitions of benchmarks

Background To better understand hospital performance in door-to-drug and door-to-balloon times for patients with STEMI, we examined hospital-level variation in key subintervals of door-to-drug time (door-to-electrocardiogram [ECG] and ECG-to-drug) and of door-to-balloon time (door-to-ECG, ECG-to-lab, lab-to-balloon). We sought to identify achievable subinterval times based on the experience of top performing hospitals . Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis, using data from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction, of admissions between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2002 (20 435 patients receiving fibrinolytic therapy in 693 hospitals, and 13 387 patients receiving percutaneous coronary intervention in 340 hospitals). Using hierarchical regression modeling, we estimated hospital-level geometric means of each subinterval, adjusted for patient clinical characteristics. We ranked hospitals based on the proportion of patients treated within 30 minutes for door-to-drug time and 90 minutes for door-to-balloon times and compared adjusted subinterval times across these groups. Results The higher performing hospitals (top 20%) in door-to-drug time and door-to-balloon times had significantly shorter times in nearly all subintervals compared with other hospitals, adjusted for patient clinical characteristics. Adjusted mean subinterval times in higher performing hospitals in door-to-drug time were 6.8 minutes (SD = 1.7) for door-to-ECG and 18.7 minutes (SD = 3.5) for ECG-to-drug. Adjusted mean subinterval times in higher performing hospitals in door-to-balloon time were 7.9 minutes (SD = 1.7) for door-to-ECG, 47.8 minutes (SD = 7.1) for ECG-to-lab, and 29.0 minutes (5.4) for lab-to-balloon, adjusted for patient clinical characteristics. Conclusions Substantial national attention is being directed at improving time to treatment of patients with STEMI. These data suggest achievable subinterval times for hospitals seeking to improve performance in this important quality indicator.