title: Early experience of primary angioplasty at Waikato Hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Acute angioplasty for myocardial infarction without prior thrombolytic therapy (primary angioplasty) has been advocated as the preferred treatment for high risk infarct patients, however data is primarily from highly experienced units. This report describes the first year's experience of primary angioplasty at Waikato Hospital which is a moderate sized institution performing 300 elective angioplasty procedures per year.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients presenting with an acute infarction who were deemed to be either at high risk or who had a contraindication to streptokinase received primary angioplasty. The program operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with all procedural and clinical outcomes being prospectively recorded on a database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty one patients underwent primary angioplasty in the first year. Vessel patency was achieved in 86%, with TIMI III flow present in 82%. Time from emergency room arrival to reperfusion averaged 95 minutes and median hospital length of stay was 5 days. Five (10%) patients died while in hospital: those in cardiogenic shock on presentation had a mortality of 33%, and the remainder 5%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that primary angioplasty is logistically feasible in a moderate sized New Zealand hospital with clinical results similar to those reported by the large interventional centers in Europe and the USA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Waikato Hospital, Hamilton.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nunn
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McAlister
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Devlin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Friedlander
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Charleson
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000592:standards*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D009520:New Zealand; D018579:Patient Selection; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome