MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION IN PATIENTS PRESENTING WITH PERSISTENT ST-SEGMENT ELEVATION (ENDING)

Abstract

The Task Force on the management of ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction of the European Society of Cardiology:Authors/Task Force Members, Frans Van de Werf, Chairperson*, Jeroen Bax, Amadeo Betriu, Carina Blomstrom-Lundqvist, Filippo Crea, Volkmar Falk, Gerasimos Filippatos, Keith Fox, Kurt Huber, Adnan Kastrati, Annika Rosengren, P. Gabriel Steg, Marco Tubaro, Freek Verheugt, Franz Weidinger and Michael Weis(Belgium)(The Netherlands)(Spain)(Sweden)(Italy)(Germany)(Greece)(UK)(Austria)(Germany)(Sweden)(France)(Italy)(The Netherlands)(Austria)(Germany)*Corresponding author. Professor Dr F. Van de Werf, Department of Cardiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Email: frans.vandewerf{at}uzleuven.beESC Committee for Practice Guidelines (CPG), Alec Vahanian, Chairperson, John Camm, Raffaele De Caterina, Veronica Dean, Kenneth Dickstein, Gerasimos Filippatos, Christian Funck-Brentano, Irene Hellemans, Steen Dalby Kristensen, Keith McGregor, Udo Sechtem, Sigmund Silber, Michal Tendera, Petr Widimsky and José Luis Zamorano(France)(UK)(Italy)(France)(Norway)(Greece)(France)(The Netherlands)(Denmark)(France)(Germany)(Germany)(Poland)(Czech Republic)(Spain)Document Reviewers, Sigmund Silber, (CPG Review Coordinator), Frank V. Aguirre, Nawwar Al-Attar, Eduardo Alegria, Felicita Andreotti, Werner Benzer, Ole Breithardt, Nicholas Danchin, Carlo Di Mario, Dariusz Dudek, Dietrich Gulba, Sigrun Halvorsen, Philipp Kaufmann, Ran Kornowski, Gregory Y. H. Lip and Frans Rutten(Germany)(USA)(France)(Spain)(Italy)(Austria)(Germany)(France)(UK)(Poland)(Germany)(Norway)(Switzerland)(Israel)(UK)(The Netherlands)KeywordsAcute myocardial infarctionST-segment elevationIschaemic heart diseaseReperfusion therapySecondary preventionA. PreambleGuidelines and Expert Consensus Documents summarize and evaluate all currently available evidence on a particular issue with the aim of assisting physicians in selecting the best management strategies for a typical patient, suffering from a given condition, taking into account the impact on outcome, as well as the risk/benefit ratio of particular diagnostic or therapeutic means. Guidelines are no substitutes for textbooks. The legal implications of medical guidelines have been discussed previously.A great number of Guidelines and Expert Consensus Documents have been issued in recent years by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) as well as by other societies and organizations. Because of the impact on clinical practice, quality criteria for the development of guidelines have been established in order to make all decisions transparent to the user. The recommendations for formulating and issuing ESC Guidelines and Expert Consensus Documents can be found on the ESC website (http://www.escardio.org/knowledge/guidelines/rules).