Reduction of treatment delay in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction: impact of pre-hospital diagnosis and direct referral to primary percutanous coronary intervention

In a cohort of patients scheduled for admission to a local hospital and subsequent transferral to an interventional centre for primary PCI, those diagnosed pre-hospitally had shorter treatment delay compared with those diagnosed in hospital, both in the setting of initial admission to a local hospital, and to an even larger extent in the setting of referral directly to the interventional centre.