Delayed first medical contact to reperfusion time increases mortality in rural emergency medical services patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) guidelines recommend an emergency medical services (EMS) first medical contact (FMC) to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) time of ≤90 min. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the association between FMC to PCI time and mortality in rural STEMI patients.

METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of patients ≥18 years old with STEMI activations from January 2016 to March 2020. Data were obtained from a rural North Carolina Regional STEMI Data Registry, which included eight rural EMS agencies and three PCI centers, the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, and the EMS electronic health record. Prehospital and in-hospital time intervals were digitally abstracted. The outcome of index hospitalization mortality was compared between patients who did and did not meet FMC to PCI time goal using Fisher's exact tests. Negative predictive value (NPV) for index hospitalization death was calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed and an optimal FMC to PCI time goal was identified by maximizing NPV to prevent index hospitalization death.

RESULTS: Among 365 rural EMS STEMI patients, 30.1% (110/365) were female with a mean ± SD age of 62.5 ± 12.7 years. PCI was performed within the 90-min time goal in 60.5% (221/365) of patients. Among these patients, 3% (11/365) died during initial STEMI hospitalization, with 1.4% (3/221) mortality in the group that met the 90-minute time goal compared to 5.6% (8/144) in patients exceeding the time goal (p = 0.03). Meeting the 90-min time goal yielded a 98.6% (95% CI 96.1%-99.7%) NPV for index death. A 78-min FMC to PCI time was the optimal cut point, yielding a NPV for index mortality of 99.3% (95% CI 96.1%-100%).

CONCLUSIONS: Death among rural patients with STEMI was four times more likely when they did not receive PCI within 90 min.