July 2002

A new national study has shown that the death rate for heart attack patients at Marin General Hospital was well below the national average during the last 11 months of 2001, as it has been in almost all similar studies over the past decade.

The study, sponsored by Genentech, a leading biotech company in South San Francisco, showed that the national mortality rate was 9.7 percent and the rate at Marin General was an average of 7.7 percent among 1,000 similar sized hospitals throughout the U.S. In fact, for patients who were treated with immediate, or primary, angioplasty over the past three years, the death rate was 4.2 percent.

MGH Chief of Cardiology Dr. Joel Sklar said, "Heart patients in Marin get top level emergency cardiac care. Our Cardiac Catheterization team treats a high volume of patients and many recover faster because of early intervention for cardiac events. Most are able to leave the hospital in three and a half days."

MGH is also 20 minutes faster in treating cardiac patients than other similar hospitals in the survey. On average, only 90 minutes elapse from the time they enter the Emergency Department until the blocked blood vessel that is causing the heart attack has been opened with angioplasty. For patients at like hospitals, the "time to treatment" averages 110 minutes.

"Every minute counts in saving heart muscle," Sklar said. "A heart attack with little muscle damage can become a massive one within a few hours if blood flow is not restored. Our coordinated program, involving the Emergency Department, the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and the Cardiac Care Unit, results in excellent outcomes for patients with acute heart attacks."

Heart attacks are caused by blocked coronary arteries. Generally, plaque accumulates in the blood vessels over time, but there may be no symptoms. If a plaque becomes unstable and a crack develops, a blood clot may form, completely obstructing blood flow and damaging or killing heart muscle. This is the mechanism behind most heart attacks.

Immediate, or primary angioplasty, offers the best chance to quickly open the blocked blood vessel. MGH's catheterization laboratory, the only one in Marin County, is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and treats approximately 75 acute heart attack patients per year with angioplasty. The total number of angioplasties performed at MGH per year is approximately 350.

Heart attacks remain the number one killer of adult Americans, causing more deaths, in both men and women, than all other diseases combined. As many as 725,000 people die yearly from heart disease, many without previous symptoms.