The wider use of reperfusion therapy in patients with heart attack (AMI) can save millions of lives in Europe. Effective reperfusion therapy in an AMI patient can cut the individual risk of dying by half. AMI is caused by a sudden blockage of a coronary artery, one of the vessels supplying the heart muscle with oxygen and nutrients. Effective reperfusion therapy provides a timely and sustainable reopening of the blockage.

Transferring heart attack patients to specialized hospitals to undergo angioplasty within six hours after receiving clot-busting drugs reduces the risk of life-threatening complications including repeat heart attacks, according to a new study from St. Michael's Hospital and Southlake Regional Hospital.

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) announced today that the New England Journal of Medicine published results of the HORIZONS AMI trial which showed the use of the anticoagulant bivalirudin following angioplasty in heart attack patients reduced net adverse clinical events by 24 percent compared to the standard treatment, as well as reduced the risk of overall mortality by 33 percent and cardiac mortality by 38 percent.

OHSU, Washington University researchers have identified the mechanism that makes a bioengineered enzyme function efficiently, opening the way to clinical development of the first safe clot busting agent for treating heart attacks and strokes

A protein has been found that influences the response of the heart to a lack of oxygen and blood flow, such as occurs during a heart attack, a team of Yale School of Medicine researchers report today in Nature.

An international study involving 467 hospitals in 12 countries found that doctors do a good job of aggressively treating the early stages of heart attacks - even before laboratory tests confirm the diagnosis.