Bristol paramedics are taking part in a research project to help work out the best way to treat heart attack patients.

Great Western Ambulance Service has signed up to the study that follows the progress of patients after heart attacks.

About 1,029 people suffered a heart attack in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire last year.

Bristol paramedic Andy Halliday dealt with the first patient in the UK mainland who was enrolled in the project.

The Stream (the STrategic Reperfusion Early After Myocardial Infarction) trial is the first study to compare the two treatments for heart attack.

One involves using clot-busting drugs – thrombolysis – the other an angioplasty where a balloon is inserted into an artery and inflated to unblock it.

Angioplasty was highlighted by the Department of Health as the best practice for heart attack patients last year, but needs to be carried out quickly.

For patients who live too far from a specialist centre, thrombolysis tends to be used, and it is hoped the research will determine whether those patients should continue to be treated using clot-busting drugs, or be taken to the nearest hospital for angioplasty instead.

When Mr Halliday arrived to treat a middle-aged man showing all the signs of a heart attack a computer check suggested how he should proceed.

He phoned the Stream project in Brussels and the decision was made for an angioplasty.

Mr Halliday has worked for the ambulance service in Bristol for 26 years and has been a paramedic for 13. He has carried out thrombolysis on patients for the past four years, since paramedics have been able to send heart readings to doctors at local hospitals so they can decide on the best course of action.

Mr Halliday said: "The idea behind Stream is to enhance patient care.

"It is random so it is not us who decide which patients get drugs and which get angioplasty."

Mr Halliday said that patients are asked if they are willing to be involved in the trial and they will be closely monitored afterwards.

The trial is being carried out throughout Europe and Canada and is aiming to recruit 2,000 heart attack patients within three hours of the onset of their symptoms.