Thursday, November 30, 2006

Drug eluting stents - more negativity

Back story here.

Blood clotting is four to five times more likely to occur in patients who have drug-coated heart devices known as stents, compared with the older bare- metal variety, according to a large data analysis by the Cleveland Clinic released Wednesday.

The analysis comes one week before a FDA panel of experts meets to discuss late stent thrombosis, or potentially fatal blood clotting, long after the devices, also known as drug-eluting stents, are implanted.

The Cleveland Clinic analysis of 14 studies with 6,675 patients will likely fuel a growing debate about the safety of drug-coated stents, the tiny wire-mesh devices used to prop open surgically cleared arteries.

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