Drug-Coated Stents Lower Heart Attack Risk In Cardiac Patients

Cardiac patients receiving medicated stents have lower risk of suffering from heart attacks, a new study finds. The study further adds that they also less likely to develop new blockages in the vessel downstream from the stent after implantation. Researchers at Cleveland Clinic suggested that these medicated stents deliver the medication to the vessel beyond the stent.

"Though there have been concerns about clots forming inside drug-releasing stents, the totality of data suggests that patients receiving drug-coated stents do better than patients receiving bare metal stents," said Richard Krasuski, M.D., Director of Adult Congenital Heart Disease Services and staff cardiologist.

"It has not been clear before, however, why preventing re-blockage in the location of a stent would have such a large benefit, but our study suggests that there may be more that the stent is doing," he said.

"When blood flows through the stent, medication not only reaches the vessel it is touching but likely the distal vessel as well. In this way it could be having a much more profound effect on the vessel," he added.

The finding could revolutionize treatment of cardiovascular disease and problems with other organ systems as well.

The study is recently published in the American Heart Journal.

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Source-ANI