Munich - Heart attack victims who immediately receive an angioplasty have a higher survival rate than those treated with fibrinolytic drugs, which is the usual procedure in many places, according to a report by the Munich-based DMW Deutsche Medizinische Wochenzeitschrift. Fewer than half of heart attack patients in Germany are given an angioplasty, however, and nearly half of the country's 439 rural districts lack angioplasty facilities.
According to Professor Christian Hamm of the Kerckhoff Cardiac Centre in Bad Nauheim, 19 of 20 heart attack patients survive an angioplasty, if they were hospitalized in good time.
The figure is 18 of 20 with fibrinolysis, he said.
An angioplasty involves the insertion of a catheter carrying a balloon, through an artery in the groin, into the blocked artery in the heart. The balloon is inflated to remove the blood clot that caused the heart attack.
In fibrinolysis, an enzyme that is injected into the artery dissolves the clot.
