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 The balloon is then deflated and the catheter is withdrawn.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.

Adult stem cell heart attack study updated

Doctors are using patients' own bone marrow stem cells (progenitor cells) to treat the damage to cardiac muscle after a heart attack in a study at Emory University School of Medicine.

12 Dec 2007

Computed tomography angiography accurate in detecting coronary artery disease

Computed tomography (CT) angiography is as accurate as an invasive angiogram in detecting coronary artery disease, according to the findings of the first two prospective multicenter 64-slice scanner trials presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

27 Nov 2007

Threat women face from vascular disease not widely understood

Though arterial vascular disease is widespread and often deadly among older American women, doctors too often fail to spot and treat it, according to a new report by a team of vascular surgeons from the Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College campuses of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

21 Nov 2007

Skin injuries to patients can be avoided when radiation dose is monitored

Maximum radiation skin dose during coronary angioplasty can be accurately determined by monitoring the total entrance skin radiation dose as the patient is being examined and dividing that number in half according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.

21 Nov 2007

Project aims to deepen the medical and research community's understanding of women's health

Women's bodies and medical needs are vastly different than men's way beyond their reproductive systems.

20 Nov 2007

Drug-eluting stents versus bare-metal stents

Drug-eluting stents are just as safe and effective as traditional bare-metal stents when used in routine clinical practice, according to a new study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital.

19 Nov 2007

64-slice CT scans a good test for clogged arteries

A study by an international team of cardiac imaging specialists, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins, concludes that sophisticated computed tomography (CT) scans of the heart and its surrounding arteries are almost as reliable and accurate as more invasive procedures to check for blockages.

6 Nov 2007

Living kidney donors show no increase in their risk of heart attacks

Living kidney donors show no increase in their risk of heart attacks or other cardiovascular events in the years after donation, according to the largest-ever study of the issue, being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 40th Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Francisco.

5 Nov 2007

Anticoagulant bivalirudin following angioplasty in heart attack patients reduces adverse events and bleeding

Late-breaking data presented at TCT 2007, the scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), show that the use of the anticoagulant bivalirudin following angioplasty in heart attack patients reduces net adverse clinical events by 24 percent compared to the standard treatment, and significantly reduces major bleeding that occurs after angioplasty by 40 percent.

24 Oct 2007

SPIRIT III trial shows fewer major adverse cardiac events

Late breaking results from the SPIRIT III trial, presented at TCT 2007, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, show that after 12 months, there were significantly fewer major adverse cardiac events (MACE) such as heart attacks, deaths from cardiac causes or repeat procedures (angioplasty or surgery) to clear the original vessel blockage after using a Xience V everolimus-eluting coronary stent than a Taxus paclitaxel-eluting stent.

24 Oct 2007

Early intervention benefits women with acute coronary syndromes

Research will be reported at TCT 2007, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), that demonstrates that early intervention saves lives in women who have a heart attack or unstable chest pain.

19 Oct 2007

Cardiac stents may cause tingling in some patients

Coronary stents are commonly used to open blocked arteries of patients with coronary artery disease.

18 Oct 2007

Bypass surgery more likely than angioplasty to relieve coronary artery disease pain

Patients with mid-range coronary artery disease are more likely to get relief from painful angina and less likely to have repeat procedures if they get bypass surgery rather than balloon angioplasty with or without a stent, according to a new report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

17 Oct 2007

Little difference in risk rates for angioplasty, bypass procedures

Patients with heart disease who undergo coronary angioplasty have an equivalent risk of death and heart attack as patients who undergo coronary bypass surgery, according to Stanford University School of Medicine researchers.

17 Oct 2007

Mortality rates 71 percent lower at top-rated hospitals

Patients have on average a 71 percent lower chance of dying at the nation's top-rated hospitals compared with the lowest-rated hospitals across 18 procedures and conditions analyzed in the tenth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, issued today by HealthGrades, the healthcare ratings company.

16 Oct 2007

Sharp declines in hospital death rates in 2004

Sharp declines in the hospital death rates of patients from heart attack and five other leading conditions meant that an estimated 136,000 who would have died had they been hospitalized a decade earlier survived their stays in 2004, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

16 Oct 2007

Landmark stent trial to be presented at TCT 2007

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) will release results of its landmark research study, HORIZONS AMI (Harmonizing Outcomes with Revascularization and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction) at the nineteenth annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium in Washington, D.C.

16 Oct 2007

Central venous catheters may harm patients

Central venous catheters are commonly used to provide permanent hemodialysis for patients with serious kidney disease.

15 Oct 2007

UF researchers test stem cell therapy for heart patients

University of Florida doctors on Wednesday (Oct. 3) treated their first patient enrolled in a new study designed to test whether injecting stem cells into the heart helps restore blood flow to the organ by prompting new blood vessels to grow.

4 Oct 2007

New guidelines for cardiac testing and treatments

People with heart disease should take special precautions before undergoing any kind of surgery, even noncardiac surgery, to reduce their risk of a cardiac event, according to new joint guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

27 Sep 2007