Toward a better knowledge of how to improve patient care in ST-elevation myocardial infarction

The paper by Pereira et al. in this issue of the Journal 1 represents an excellent and unique analysis of the treatment of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in Portugal that may also be useful to other European countries.The authors analyze changes in the treatment of STEMI patients since Portugal joined the 'Stent for Life' initiative developed by the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions and the European Society of Cardiology, which aimed to improve treatment of STEMI, reduce related mortality and increase the number of patients treated. 2 The study included 838 patients admitted to 18 hospitals, corresponding to all patients with STEMI who underwent coronary angiography at the participating centers for a onemonth period every year from 2011 to 2015.Patient data were collected from the National Registry of Interventional Cardiology (RNCI) and the Portuguese Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes (ProACS).3,4 It is somewhat regrettable that only the data for a single month per year were used when the information for the whole year was also available in these