SUNDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Drug-eluting stents, the
small tubing placed in diseased coronary arteries to keep them
open, are more effective than bare-metal stents for heart attack
patients, new research shows.
In the largest study yet comparing the long-term effect of
drug-eluting stents -- the drug in question retards the growth of
arterial cells -- with drug-free ones, Boston researchers report
the drug-eluting device lowers the risk of blood vessels narrowing
again and doesn't heighten the risk of mortality.
In analyzing data from 7,216 Massachusetts patients who had
stents implanted after having suffered a heart attack known as a
myocardial infarction (MI), the researchers concluded that those
patients who had drug-eluting stents had a 5 percent better chance
of the diseased artery remaining open.
Additionally, they found, those who had an MI and got
drug-eluting stents were 1.5 percent less likely than patients with
bare-metal stents to have another heart attack in the two-year
period that was studied. Mortality was 2.8 percent less likely in
patients with drug-eluting stents, the researchers said.
The findings follow earlier smaller studies this year that
showed the drug-eluting stents may be safe for MI patients but
questioned their long-term effectiveness.
The new research was to be presented Sunday at a joint meeting
of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions
(SCAI) and the American College of Cardiology in Chicago.
"This study confirms that the same benefits that drug-eluting
stents offer other patients in preventing restenosis [re-narrowing]
of the coronary arteries are still there for patients with MI, and
there doesn't appear to be any trade-off in increased risk of
repeat MI or death," Dr. Laura Mauri, the study's lead researcher,
said in a prepared statement.
"I would feel comfortable considering drug-eluting stents on the
basis of these results -- with the caveats that treated patients
must be able to take antiplatelet therapy and that we definitely
want to see even longer-term follow-up," added Mauri, who is chief
scientific officer at the Harvard Clinical Research Institute, as
well as a Brigham and Womens Hospital cardiologist and an assistant
professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
More information
The U.S. government has more information on
how stenting works.
