Stents equal drugs for stable heart disease: study

By Kim Dixon

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A popular procedure using stents to prop open unclogged arteries provided no extra safety benefit compared with prescription drugs alone in treating patients with stable heart disease, according to a large study released on Monday.

The highly-anticipated findings cast more doubt on the utility of stents, mesh devices used to prop open arteries. Use of a drug-emitting type of stent has been under scrutiny after recent data revealed a small but serious risk of blood clots long after implantation.

The study, presented at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in New Orleans, followed about 2,300 patients over an average of five years. It found similar rates of death, heart attack, stroke and hospitalization among those treated with drugs and those getting an artery-clearing angioplasty, a stent, and medication.

"The results demonstrate that two treatments are not always better than one," said Bill Boden, chief of cardiology at Buffalo (New York) General Hospital, who led the Department of Veterans' Affairs-sponsored study, which is also being published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The one benefit of stenting was an improvement in patients' chest pain, the study found.

Patients enrolled in the study had chronic chest pain and at least a 70 percent blockage of one of more of their heart arteries. They all took a combination of drugs for heart disease, including aspirin and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

The data were released a day ahead of schedule after a doctor who is also an adviser to Boston Scientific Corp., which makes stents, revealed the results at a meeting with doctors and analysts on Sunday night. The Wall Street Journal reported the doctor's comments on its Web site.

The artery-opening surgery is performed more than 1 million times a year, according to the cardiology association. Patients in the study received the bare-metal version of stents, not the more controversial drug-eluting type.