The association between on-site cardiac catheterization facilities and the use of coronary angiography after acute myocardial infarction

Patients treated in hospitals with cardiac catheterization facilities were three times more likely to have coronary angiography performed after a heart attack than patients admitted to a hospital without those facilities. Coronary angiography is a diagnostic technique that uses X-rays to visualize the heart and blood vessels after the injection of a contrast medium into the veins. A review of the records of 5,867 patients admitted to 19 Seattle, WA, hospitals for treatment of heart attacks evaluated the likelihood that patients would have angiography performed. A further analysis of 614 patients treated by doctors who worked at both hospitals with the catheterization facilities and those without indicated that the doctors performed the procedure on 73% of their patients at hospitals with on-site facilities. The procedure was only performed on 47% of those admitted to hospitals without cardiac catheterization facilities. There was no association between on-site facilities and in-hospital mortality rates.