The Year in Non–ST-Segment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome

Acute coronary syndrome

Implementation of the AHA/ACC standards for AMI is crucial for patient management and outcomes. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid (CMS) has established indicators within the AMI core measure to ensure the evidence-based care is provided during the hospital stay. This core measure includes specific indicators that must be documented in the medical record. Refer to Box 2 for a list of the indicators. A recent announcement by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated the United States is declaring war on heart disease. Current costs for treating heart disease and stroke is estimated to be $1 out of every $6 in health care expenditures. This initiative is called the "Million Hearts Initiative." Ten states will receive $85 million in grants for the purpose of addressing chronic diseases targeting weight reduction, smoking cessation, control of lipids, and prevention of diabetes. Early recognition and early intervention for patients with ACS, followed by management of risk factors with secondary prevention strategies, are key to decreasing ACS-related mortality. Management of the ACS patient does not end with discharge from the hospital, but is continued throughout the patient's lifetime.

Detection of non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction using magnetocardiogram: new information from spatiotemporal electrical activation map

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) cannot be easily detected in the emergency room. We evaluate a method to detect NSTEMI using 64-channel magnetocardiography (MCG).

METHODS

MCG recordings were made in 20 NSTEMI patients (aged 59.7+/-12.4 years), 15 young (aged 26.8+/-3.4 years), and 13 age-matched control subjects (aged 57.3+/-3.6). We evaluated three approaches to analysis, including 1) determination when individual subjects' MCG results fell outside normal ranges for ten MCG parameters, 2) the magnetic field map at the T-wave peak (T-MFM), and 3) a pair of spatiotemporal activation graphs (STAGs) showing two projections of electrical excitation during repolarization.

RESULTS

Significant differences were found between normal controls and patients for all MCG parameters. None of the healthy controls had more than four MCG abnormal parameters, whereas 19 NSTEMI patients (95%) were abnormal in more than four parameters. STAGs and T-MFM also showed clear differences between healthy controls and NSTEMI patients.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that the MCG is sensitive to changes in the cardiac electrical pathway after myocardial infarction as described by these graphs and parameters, and therefore MCG may be a useful tool to detect severe ischemic patients.