“We know the time to opening the blocked coronary artery with PCI in heart attack patients is an important indicator for how a patient does after their heart attack. There are two measures for this time. One is symptom-to-balloon time, which is before the patient arrives to the hospital after symptoms start, to when that patient has a PCI; second is door-to-balloon time, the time from hospital arrival to PCI,” said study author Gregg W. Stone, M.D., director of academic affairs at Mount Sinai Heart Health System in New York City. “We focused on heart attack size, or damage, with both time measures and found symptom-to-balloon time was by far the more important.”

“During the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are reporting fewer people coming into the emergency room for heart attack and stroke symptoms – indicating people aren’t calling 911, or they are delaying or avoiding critical care,” Elkind said. “This concerns us because we know it’s very unlikely that there are fewer heart attacks or strokes occurring. These new findings emphasize just how crucial it is to call 911 at the first sign of a heart attack or stroke – because getting quick treatment can be the difference between life and death. As we have been urging even during the COVID-19 pandemic, don’t die of doubt. Call 911 as soon as possible.”

Co-authors are Björn Redfors, M.D., Ph.D.; Reza Mohebi, M.D.; Gennaro Giustino, M.D.; Shmuel Chen, M.D., Ph.D.; Harry P. Selker, M.D., M.S.P.H.; Holger Thiele, M.D.; Manesh R. Patel, M.D.; James E. Udelson, M.D.; E. Magnus Ohman, M.D.; Ingo Eitel, M.D.; Christopher B. Granger, M.D.; Akiko Maehara, M.D.; Ziad A. Ali, M.D., D.Phil.; Ori Ben-Yehuda, M.D. Author disclosures are in the manuscript. The researchers reported no funding sources for this study.