Angioplasty News and Research

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In angioplasty procedures, a balloon is fed through a catheter and used to prop open an artery that has become narrowed or blocked. In cases where stenting is appropriate, a stent mounted on a balloon is inserted and inflation of the balloon expands the stent against the blocked artery wall to hold the vessel open. The balloon is then deflated and the catheter is withdrawn. Stent treatment of arteries holds them open and improves blood flow to the heart. In cases where post-dilatation is needed, a high-pressure balloon is inflated inside a stent to help better place the stent against the vessel wall.

Studies indicate why females do not fare as well as men in undergoing angioplasty for heart attacks

Age, condition and treatment delay are among the reasons women who undergo angioplasty for heart attack often do not fare as well as do men, according to two studies presented today at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 32nd Annual Scientific Sessions.

6 May 2009

Results from study comparing safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) announced that its landmark study comparing the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents was published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

6 May 2009

Healthcare reform should start with paying evidence-based financial incentives to doctors

Healthcare Reform should start with "evidence-based reimbursement", structuring physician payment incentives around existing empirical evidence of clinical benefit, which would improve quality and reduce the cost of healthcare, says a commentary written by two cardiologists and published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes .

20 Apr 2009

Telemonitoring changes the working practice of cardiac nurses

The 9th Annual Spring Meeting of the European Society of Cardiology Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (CCNAP), organised in cooperation with the Irish Nurses Cardiovascular Association (INCA), is being held at the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland, on 24-25 April.

8 Apr 2009

Certain combined medications following heart attack may increase risk of death

Following an acute coronary syndrome such as a heart attack or unstable angina, patients who receive a medication to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding that may be associated with the use of the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel and aspirin have an increased risk of subsequent hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome or death, according to a study in the March 4 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

2 Apr 2009

Post heart attack, bone marrow stem cells increase blood flow within heart

Patients treated with their own bone marrow stem cells after a heart attack experienced increased circulation within the heart, a study by Emory University School of Medicine physicians has found.

30 Mar 2009

Drug-coated stents lower risk of heart attack and death

Heart disease patients 65 and older who receive stents coated with medicine to prevent blockages are more likely to survive and less likely to suffer a heart attack than people fitted with stents not coated with medication, according to a new study supported by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American College of Cardiology's National Cardiovascular Data Registry.

30 Mar 2009

Clinical effectiveness of coronary stents in the elderly

29 Mar 2009

Heart bypass surgery better than angioplasty for certain patients

After three years working with investigators from 10 different clinical trials around the world from Brazil to London to Pittsburgh, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have pooled enough individual patient data to compare the effectiveness of coronary artery bypass surgery with the less-invasive angioplasty procedure on specific groups of patients for the first time.

20 Mar 2009

Schering-Plough's investigational oral thrombin receptor antagonist meets primary endpoint in a newly published study

Results of a Schering-Plough Corporation Phase II trial of SCH 530348, a novel oral thrombin receptor antagonist (TRA), were published today in The Lancet and demonstrated that the investigational antiplatelet compound met its primary endpoints of safety and tolerability.

12 Mar 2009

Trends in heart attack explained

Explaining trends in heart attack: prevention has improved, mortality rates are down, hospitalisation remains the same

11 Mar 2009

'Seeing' stem cells helps in fight against peripheral arterial disease

Interventional radiologists are fitting together the puzzle pieces of how to use stem cells to create new or more blood vessels to treat peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in those individuals with extensively narrowed or clogged arteries.

11 Mar 2009

Saving limbs with drug-eluting stents

Attempts to treat critical limb ischemia in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients with below-the-knee angioplasty are still thwarted by restenosis (the re-narrowing of the artery at the site of angioplasty or stenting), the need for repeat treatments and the continued progression of atherosclerotic disease, leading to tissue death (gangrene) and amputation.

11 Mar 2009