
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 8, 1994                   TAG: 9402080034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

EARLY DRUGS ADVISED FOR HEART PATIENTS

Heart attack patients should be treated with so-called "clot-busting" drugs within 30 minutes after they arriving at emergency rooms, federal health officials recommended Monday in new guidelines designed to reduce death by heart attack, the leading killer of Americans.

Therapy using clot-busting - or thrombolytic - drugs works by dissolving blockages in the arteries and restoring coronary artery flow. Among the most popular are the expensive t-PA and streptokinase, a less costly alternative. A debate continues over which is more effective.

While not every patient is a candidate for the drugs, "too few patients are being treated [with them]," said Dr. Costas Lambrew, head of the cardiology division at Maine Medical Center in Portland and co-chairman of the National Heart Attack Alert Program, which issued the guidelines in a report.

Furthermore, many heart attack patients who are treated with the drugs often do not receive them early enough to achieve the most benefit, the report said.

In the case of thrombolytic therapy, for example, the drugs often are not administered for an average of 60 to 90 minutes after a patient arrives.

Ideally, the report said, the treatment should begin for every eligible heart attack patient within one hour after the first symptoms occur - or within 30 minutes after arriving at an emergency room.

by CNB