Narrator:
This is Science Today. Each year, about 100 thousand
elderly Americans with a heart condition called
left bundle-branch block will have a heart attack.
These patients have a small area of damaged heart
tissue that doesn't allow an electrical current
to pass through in a normal manner. Dr. Michael
Shlipak of the University of California, San Francisco,
says this skews ECG readings and leads to under-treatment.
Shilpak:
In patients with left bundle-branch block, it's
never been known exactly what the likelihood of
them having a heart attack when they come in with
chest pain. We know that they're high risk, we know
they are likely to die if they do have a heart attack,
but if they come in with chest pain, we've never
know what to do.
Narrator:
In a recent study, Shilpak found the best option
is to treat these patients with either thrombolytic
therapy or angioplasty.
Shilpak:
Now, the important thing from the public health
point of view is that the current utilization of
these therapies is very low. As physicians, we have
a long way to go towards optimally treating them
and that was part of the conclusions of our paper.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
