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Study: Weekend Heart Attacks Riskier
"That's a pretty powerful way of saying that the underuse of angioplasty on weekends had a direct effect on patient survival," as other researchers have speculated, Garratt said.
He said that as cardiac care generally improved over the study's 16 years, fewer patients had really severe heart attacks, and that the difference in weekend and weekday death rates in this study appears to mainly reflect whether the mild heart attack patients got angioplasty.
  Heart attack patients have a slightly higher risk of death if they go to the hospital on the weekend, when they are more likely to miss or wait longer for crucial treatments, one of the largest studies of the issue finds. (AP GRAPHIC) (AP) In Depth
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In an editorial in the journal, Drs. Donald A. Redelmeier and Chaim M. Bell of the University of Toronto wrote that research has shown surges in patient complications on weekends.
"If the patient dies on the weekend, no heroics on Monday will suffice," they wrote.
Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University School of Medicine cardiologist, said differences in staffing levels and communication may play a role in the different death rates. His research team in 2005 found that heart attack sufferers waited 20 to 30 minutes longer for angioplasty on weekends or after hours.
"This may be a quality challenge, for our health system to ensure no matter what time you come to the hospital you're going to get outstanding care" after a heart attack, Krumholz said.
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