Cardiologists stand by stents

Recently there have been reports that blood clots can form within drug-coated stents designed to keep arteries clear. But cardiologists at the Transcather Cardiovascular Therapeutics show say patients are "far more are being killed each year by the failure of doctors to promptly clear coronary arteries and install stents when patients arrive at a hospital during a heart attack." Experts say that many studies have proven the superiority of stents to clot-busting drugs, and that the risk of an adverse reaction to the stent is small in comparison to the risk of foregoing the treatment. One problem is that often, smaller hospitals don't have a cardiologist on hand who's trained to handle stents. Experts say that if a patient is sent to a hospital that doesn't perform the procedure, they should be immediately transferred to another institution that does. This will be welcomed news for Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Medtronic and Abbott Laboratories, all of which are collaborating on a 10,000-person safety study of the technology.

For more on the issue:
- read this New York Times article

Related Article:
Medical device makers to fund stent safety study. Report
Decline in drug-coated stent use at major cardiac centers. Article