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QUESTION: Is prehospital thrombolysis more effective than inhospital thrombolysis for decreasing short term mortality in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI)?
Data sources
Studies were identified by searching Medline, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index (1982 to 1999); Dissertation Abstracts (1987 to 1999); and Current Contents (1994 to 1999) with the terms thrombolysis, thrombolysis therapy, prehospital, and acute myocardial infarction and with the Cochrane search strategy. Bibliographies of relevant papers were searched, the US National Institutes of Health web site was reviewed, and authors and manufacturers of thrombolytic agents were contacted.
Study selection
Randomised controlled trials were selected if they compared prehospital with inhospital thrombolysis for patients with MI and assessed all cause hospital mortality.
Data extraction
Data were …
Footnotes
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Source of funding: no external funding.
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For correspondence: Dr L J Morrison, Division of Prehospital Care, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Science Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Suite BG-20, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada. phc.research{at}utoronto.ca.