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Title.  Primary angioplasty for heart attack: mismatch between expectations and reality?

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to explore patients’ experiences of primary angioplasty and assess their illness perceptions during early recovery.

Background.  Primary angioplasty is recognized as the gold standard treatment for patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction, yet little is known about patients’ experiences of this treatment. Recent policy change has emphasized the need for clinical practice to be more patient‐centred. One way to achieve this is to understand patients’ experiences of treatment better.

Method.  A mixed methods exploratory study was carried out in 2006–2007 with a purposive sample of 29 patients. Data were collected 3–12 days after hospital discharge using (a) semi‐structured interviews to explore participants’ experiences and (b) The Illness Perception Questionnaire to …