The coronary care unit. New perspectives and directions

In the past two decades there have been momentous advances in the care of patients with cardiovascular ailments. Yet, mortality from coronary-artery disease has remained unaffected. Year after year myocardial infarction and its complications exact the highest toll of any single disease.1In large metropolitan hospitals, the death rate from this condition 30 years ago ranged from 30% to 40% and remains unaltered today. Certain facts are forcing reevaluation of the problem. Peak mortality occurs at the very onset of myocardial infarction and then recedes almost exponentially, with 65% of deaths occurring in the initial three days and 85% during the first week of attack. Arrhythmias probably account for 40% of deaths. Of these about two thirds are due to ventricular fibrillation and one third to bradycardia, heart block, and asystole.2It is well established that these electrical catastrophes are usually not due to irreversible cardiac damage. On