A revolutionary new approach to treating heart attack victims is proving to be a big life-saver, according to North-East doctors.

Since April heart specialists at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough have treated heart attack victims by unblocking their arteries with a tiny balloon rather than injecting clot-busting drugs.

An analysis of the results shows that using angioplasty as an emergency treatment really does save lives.

Out of approximately 170 heart attack victims treated in the new way, only two patients died, a big improvement on the previous approach of using clot-dissolving drugs alone.

"The figures are great. There appears to have been a big reduction in the death rate," said Dr Jim Hall, head of cardiology at James Cook.

Now the Teesside heart unit has been asked by Government 'heart tsar' Dr Roger Boyle to become part of a national pilot scheme to thoroughly test the new treatment.

Cardiologists at James Cook decided to switch to emergency angioplasty treatment for all heart attack patients because of growing international evidence.

"Before April we used to do it in selected patients but now we do it for everybody," said Dr Hall.

"A mortality rate of less than five per cent for people who have had heart attacks now appears to be a realistic goal, which is fantastic," he added.

As part of the new approach, once a heart attack has been confirmed the ambulance crews take the patient directly to a catheter laboratory where angioplasty is carried out.

This is done by inserting a fine tube through an artery, usually in the groin, and feeding it up to the heart, where a balloon is inflated in the blockage to reopen the blood vessel.

Last week doctors at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust in London revealed that they had seen a five-fold drop in deaths among patients given angioplasty instead of clot-busting drugs after a heart attack.

Earlier this year Health Secretary John Reid announced a £1m project to look into the possibility of providing 24 hour angioplasty at centres around the UK.

Dr Hall said he and his colleagues are now looking at whether a combination of drugs and angioplasty might cut death rates even more.