Drop In Hospital Heart Attack Deaths

Deaths from severe heart attacks after hospital admission have nearly halved in six years due to advances in medical treatment. In the largest study of its kind, reseach led by Edinburgh University analysed more than 44,000 patients in 14 countries.

They found that death rates fell from 8.4% in 1999, to 4.5% by 2006.

Treatments including angioplasty and anti -clotting drugs were key to the reduction, according to the report pulished in the Journal of the American Medical Association.