Too few heart attack patients get aspirin on way to hospital

By Madeline Kennedy (Reuters Health) – People who might be having heart attack should get aspirin on the way to the hospital, but about half of patients in the U.S. don't get this potentially life-saving treatment, according to a recent review. National guidelines recommend giving aspirin to heart attack patients as soon as possible, but emergency medical service (EMS) providers sometimes omit this vital step, the authors say. “We were interested in knowing how often patients that presented with symptoms suggestive of a heart attack were given aspirin by EMS providers," said lead author Dr. Katie Tataris, an EMS Medical Director in Chicago and assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago. Symptoms of a heart attack may include pain or tightness in the chest, shortness of breath or pain in the upper body.



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