New Canadian study finds drug coated heart stents t...(second procedure to unblock or bypass a ...),Health

clogged artery by 30% relative to BMS, from 10.7% to 7.4%.

- After 3 years of follow up, mortality was reduced for DES patients

(5.5%) relative to BMS (7.8%).

- After 2 years of follow up, rate of heart attack for DES patients was

marginally but not significantly higher at 5.7% vs. 5.2% in BMS

patients.

- The reduction in the need for repeat procedures (i.e. target vessel

revascularization (TVR rate)) was greatest in patients with two or

three risk factors (e.g. diabetes, small vessels, or long lesions)

for renarrowing of the artery, whereas lower and intermediate risk

patients did not have significant reductions in TVR rates.

Co-Author, Dr. Eric Cohen, Medical Officer for CCN says, "Drug-eluting stents have been at the centre of a very active worldwide debate regarding issues of safety, degree of benefit and funding of a relatively expensive new technology. This study will be very helpful to clinicians, administrators and policy-makers in clarifying these issues as it confirms that using drug-eluting stents in patients at high risk for renarrowing is both effective and safe."

Interventional Cardiologists use the tiny wire mesh tubes called stents to help prop open narrowed arteries after angioplasty, an artery clearing operation and a common medical procedure for treating angina and heart attacks. Prior to the development of stents, more than 20% of angioplasty patients required a second angioplasty or bypass surgery because of renarrowing of their coronary arteries. Both bare metal and drug-eluting stents enable blood to flow more easily through the artery by holding it open, with drug-eluting stents also leaking drugs to prevent tissue re-growth from re-clogging the arteries.

ICES Sr. Scientist, Dr. Jack Tu who holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
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