Introduction

Worldwide, cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for 17.5 million deaths and 46.2% of all deaths due to Non Communicable Diseases. The majority of deaths occur in low income countries such as India.¹ Around 29.8 million coronary artery disease patients are in India. South Indians are at higher risk of mortality from CVD.² The Global Burden of Diseases study highlighted that in India, mortality from Acute Coronary Syndrome [ACS] is projected to increase from 1.6 million in 2000 to approximately 64 million by 2015.³

Delay in presentation are attributed  mostly to the patient's own decisions, and other factors contributing to delay are  age, gender, education, marital status, living conditions, lack of transport facility, lack of perception of symptoms.  These factors are influenced by socio-economic factors and vary from region to region. However, patient delay time, which accounts for 75% of the total pre-hospital delay has not changed in the past decade. Thus, reducing patient delay time and taking care of factors responsible for delay, is very crucial for better outcome.^4-7

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Dr Dhiraj Ramdas Jadhav