some notes lifted from Vienna Cardiology conference
Warning About Stents
Some cardiologists said they were alarmed by the increasing
use of stents -- tubular devices installed in some 500,000
patients a year to prop their arteries open. Although they can
save lives, stents, which are made by Johnson & Johnson, Guidant
Corp., Boston Scientific Corp. and others, lose effectiveness in
about a third of patients over periods of months.
''We must stop this stento-mania,'' said Karl R. Karsch, a
professor of cardiology at the University of Tuebingen, Germany.
He said at his medical center, only 3 percent of angina patients
are stented. The University of Lille's Bertrand said 86 percent
of patients at his center are stented.
The use of stents is likely to be boosted by a study of Eli
Lilly & Co.'s drug abciximab, said Bertrand. The six-month study
showed that the use of the drug with stents halved the risk of
death or heart attack from the level that can be expected when
using just stents.
Other companies, including Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough
Corp., also make newly-approved drugs to treat the reclogging of
stented arteries, called restenosis, but no long-term studies
have proven their effectiveness, Bertrand said.
''Stenting plus abciximab is certainly the best combination
in my opinion,'' said Bertrand.
--Dane Hamilton in Vienna, through the London newsroom (44-171)
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