1) To identify the time taken from symptom onset to the arrival at the hospital (pre-hospital delay time) and time taken from the arrival at the hospital to the initiation of the major treatment (in-hospital delay time) 2) to examine whether rapid treatment results in lower mortality. 3) to examine whether the pre- and in-hospital delay time can independently predict in-hospital mortality.

A retrospective study with 586 consecutive AMI patients was conducted.

Pre-hospital delay time was 5.25 (SD=10.36), and in-hospital delay time was 1.10 (SD=1.00) hours for the thrombolytic therapy and 50.24 (SD=121.18) hours for the percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty(PTCA). In-hospital mortality was the highest when the patients were treated between 4 to 48 hours after symptom onset using PTCA (rho=.02), and when treated between 30 minutes and one hour after hospital arrival using thrombolytics (rho=.01). Using a hierarchical logistic regression model, the pre- and in-hospital delay times did not predict the in-hospital mortality.

Pre- and in-hospital delay times need to be decreased to meet the desirable therapeutic time window. Thrombolytics should be given within 30 minutes after arrival at the hospital, and PTCA should be initiated within 4 hours after symptom onset to minimize in-hospital mortality of AMI patients.