Landmark trial results published recently reveal that changing the way people suffering from Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS), or “threatened heart attack” are treated could save more than 5,000 lives each year in the UK.
Heart study highlights life-saving intervention
British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professor Keith Fox, at the University of Edinburgh, led the trial – called RITA3, which involved over 1,800 patients with ACS at 45 hospitals in England and Scotland. This BHF-funded research is the first large long-term study to show that early specialist assessment and procedures to repair or bypass damaged arteries can save lives of people with ACS – all the symptoms of threatened heart attack but without major damage – believed to be suffered by at least 155,000 people each year. The results were also presented to heart specialists at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2005 in Stockholm, which took place in September.
Professor Fox commented: “RITA 3 demonstrates, for the first time, that an interventional strategy is better than “watchful waiting” for many patients with threatened heart attack because it saves lives and prevents heart attacks in the long term. The findings will provide robust evidence to support guidelines for the management of acute coronary syndrome.”
