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11th MINAP Public Report

16 November 2012

 Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (

ucl.ac.uk/nicor/audits/minap/index" target="_blank">MINAP) has published its 11th  Annual Public Report reporting on performance against national standards for hospitals that admit patients with a heart attack.

Heart attack remains a major problem in the UK. Prompt and appropriate treatment reduces the likelihood of death and further heart attack, and can lead to full recovery.  There are two types of patients with a heart attack - STEMI and nSTEMI.

Patients whose heart attacks are of the STEMI type have a completely blocked coronary artery and are at greater risk of death in the first few hours of the event. Urgent reopening of the blocked artery (reperfusion) is vital. This can be achieved with 'clot-busting' (thrombolytic) drug treatment, but preferably by mechanical means using techniques called Primary PCI. Availability of the latter and preferred treatment by Cardiac Network based on patietn is also discussed.

Compared with STEMI, patients with nSTEMI are likely to have only a partial blockage of a coronary artery, and so immediate PCI is not required. Number of factors influence the outcome of nSTEMI patients amongst which is an early access to angiography and specialist cardiology involvement which determines the likelihood of receiving effective modern 'evidence-based' treatments.