Remote Electrocardiographic in Acute Myocardial Monitoring Infarction

Abstract

A system of continuous remote electrocardiographic monitoring, from four small hospitals to a central hospital coronary care unit, was applied to 130 patients with confirmed acute myocardial infarctions. The mortality survey of 19 months' experience with this system revealed a hospital mortality of 27%. An analysis of 149 consecutive myocardial infarctions in the same hospitals prior to the initiation of remote monitoring of the electrocardiogram showed a hospital mortality of 38%. Thirty-nine patients with myocardial infarctions who were treated concurrently with the monitored patients, but without remote monitoring, had a mortality of 44%. The two coronary care units, from which remote monitoring and medical support were provided, treated 516 cases of acute myocardial infarction during a similar interval, with a hospital mortality of 19%.