Aborting STEMI: What treatment opportunities may Smart-Phone ECGs give us prior to first medical contact to facilitate primary PCI?

摘要

The diagnosis of STEMI is based classically on a "cross-sectional" examination of the presenting ECG at first medical contact This approach may be modified as patients can now record ECG strips on an iPhone. In the near future, multi-electrode recordings with electrodes embedded on a pad or a vest which the patient places or wears over the chest may provide "longitudinal" information to the evolutionary ECG changes of STEMI prior to first medical contact A recent article forecasted that with Smart Phone ECG monitoring the longitudinal ECG information will allow STEMI to be categorized on a gray-scale ranging from large rapidly progressive STEMI to small stuttering STEMI. The next question is whether the Phone ECG information also allows new treatment or self-therapy to be initiated prior to first medical contact to help "abort" the progressive coronary thrombosis causing the infarction.