New study on stents and heart attacks: What you need to know
Publicity surrounding a new study on whether surgery is needed for blocked arteries is confusing patients and leading to questions for their doctors. Some patients may even be delaying going to see a doctor because they think the study means treating their problem with drugs is just fine.
The study, called “Ischemia” was reported in an article in The New York Times and elsewhere in mid-November. It was a large study, funded by the federal government, and reported at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. The main conclusion is that patients who received drug therapy alone didn’t have more heart attacks or die more often than those who had bypass surgery or received stents, which are used to prop open clogged arteries.
But a closer reading of the study shows that a drastic change in the way doctors treat blocked arterties may not be needed.