Wikipedia
Door-to-balloon is a time measurement in emergency cardiac care (ECC), specifically in the treatment of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (or STEMI). The interval starts with the patient's arrival in the emergency department, and ends when a catheter guidewire crosses the culprit lesion in the cardiac cath lab. Because of the adage that "time is muscle", meaning that delays in treating a myocardial infarction increase the likelihood and amount of cardiac muscle damage due to localised hypoxia, ACC/AHA guidelines recommend a door-to-balloon interval of no more than 90 minutes. Currently fewer than half of STEMI patients receive reperfusion with primary percutaneous coronary intervention within the guideline-recommended timeframe. It has become a core quality measure for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (TJC).