Drug-coated Stents Better than Bare Metal Stents
By admin • Jan 25th, 2008 • Category: Heart Research
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Using drug-coated stents to unblock coronary arteries is safer and more effective than using uncoated stents in patients with complex heart disease.
Drug-coated stents also have a lower rate of repeat procedures in those patients.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center researchers announced the findings from an analysis of 6,500 patient records.
Examples of complex conditions include blockages that happen at branching points of coronary arteries, exceptionally long blockages and blockages within grafts from coronary artery bypass surgery.
The researchers feel the study supports the continued use of drug-coated stents for patients with these complex heart issues.
The analysis is in response to questions raised by the U.S. FDA in late 2006 about the safety of stents.
The coated stents cost about $2,400, compared to $800 for the bare-metal ones.
The study was published in New England Journal of Medicine.
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