A LIFE-SAVING method piloted at a North-East hospital is due to become the nation’s first line of treatment for heart attacks.

In recent years, the coronary angioplasty service at The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough has expanded, so more heart attack victims from across the region have been able to benefit from the life-saving service.

Currently, thrombolysis, the injection of clot-busting drugs, is the most common treatment for heart attack patients.

But primary angioplasty – where a small balloon is inserted into a blocked coronary artery and then inflated, leaving a rigid support to restore blood flow – is widely believed to provide superior outcomes, provided it can be done quickly.

A report by the National Infarct Angioplasty Project (NIAP), released by the Department of Health, has concluded that it is feasible and cost-effective to offer angioplasty as an emergency treatment for 97 per cent of heart attack patients in England.

Clinical evidence shows that using angioplasty as the primary treatment for heart attack patients will:

● Save about 240 more lives a year;

● Reduce complications from treatment of heart attacks;

● Reduce recurrence of heart attacks;

● Prevent about 260 strokes a year;

● Decrease the length of patients’ hospital stay.

Consultant cardiologist at James Cook, Jim Hall, said: “We have now been carrying out the procedure for a number of years and it was interesting to see how all the services improved during the course of the project. Locally, that process of improvement has continued after the study has finished.”

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “The national roll-out of the primary angioplasty strategy will save hundreds of lives each year and improve outcomes for many more heart attack patients.

“Compared to 1996, nearly 33,000 lives were saved last year in heart disease, stroke and related diseases and inequalities in the death rate from these diseases have been narrowing for the past eight years.”