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Heart attack victims do worse on drug stents
Patients given drug-coated stents after an acute heart attack are nearly five times more likely to die six months to two years laterthan those with bare metal forms of the arterial scaffolding, research showed on Tuesday.
The finding, from a two year analysis of 2300 patients in 14 countries, fuels the debate over the safety of so -called drug-eluting stents, made by the likes of Boston Seientific and Johnson & Johnson. Doctors at the European Society of Cordiology said the finding showed the need to be very selective about giving drug stents to the right patients. Gabriel Steg of the Hospital Bichat-Claude Bernard in paris followed the fate of patients who were given stents tiny wire meshtubes used to prop open clogged heart arteries following a ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, the most deadly kind of heart attack.
For the first six months, those on drug stents did as well as those on bare ones. But after 180 days, their paths diverged and the drug stent patients were 4.7 times more likely to die, with a mortality rate of 8.6 percent seen.
Dr.Steg said the trend probably reflected the high thrombosis risk in this group of patients, who represent an estimated 10 to 20 percent of coronary stent procedures. Drug stents are known to carry a small risk of blood clots after the first year, known as “late stent thrombosis.” This occurs in less than i per cent of patients but kills nearly half of those affected. Dr.Steg said many heart patients with less acute conditions could still benefit from drug stents, which help prevent arteries narrowing again. ” I still believe there is room for DES in many patients and I disagree with the concept of banning DES altogether,” he said. Reuters