Cardiologists from five Detroit-area health systems have announced that a joint program has improved survival rates in some patients experiencing a side-effect of heart attacks.
Details of the Detroit Cardiogenic Shock Initiative were announced Wednesday at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
The group says that cardiogenic shock is fatal to half the patients suffering the condition in which the heart's pump function is severely depressed. That causes low blood pressure and deprives vital organs of blood.
The initiative started last summer.
Health systems involved in the work agreed to use a straw-sized heart pump on patients just before doctors treat them for heart attacks. The doctors say the treatment resulted in an 80 percent survival rate in 30 patients having heart attacks and showing signs of cardiogenic shock.
