Drug-coated stents top bare metal in diabetics

By Bill Berkrot

NEW ORLEANS, Nov 10 (Reuters) - More expensive drug-coated stents were more effective in reducing the risk of repeat surgical procedures, heart attack and death compared with older bare metal stents in patients with diabetes, according to results of a study released on Monday.

"We actually saw a significant benefit from using drug-eluting stents in this patient population," said Laura Mauri, lead researcher of the study that was funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

"As a result we can say that these stents appear to be safe in diabetic patients, whose diabetes puts them at higher risk of mortality and heart attack than the general population," said Mauri, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Diabetics make up about a third of all patients who undergo procedures to reopen blocked arteries, said researchers, who presented results of the study at the American Heart Association scientific meeting here.

The data were likely to come as welcome news for the four companies that sell lucrative drug-coated stents -- Boston Scientific Corp (BSX.N), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), Medtronic Inc (MDT.N) and Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) -- following recent studies that found they may be used more often than necessary.

Stents are tiny mesh tubes used to prop open arteries that have been cleared of blockages by angioplasty procedures. The newer versions are coated with drugs to help prevent reclogging.

The study looked at more than 5,000 diabetics who underwent artery-clearing procedures and received stents between April 2003 and September 2004.

After three years, researchers found that the risk of death in those who got the drug coated stents was 17.5 percent compared with 20.7 percent in the bare metal group, a small but significant 3.2 percent reduction with no excess adverse events.

Two-year data also found lower rates of heart attack and need for repeat procedures in the drug-coated stent patients, said researchers. They said three-year data were not yet available in those categories. (Editing by Dave Zimmerman)