Science / Medicine : Wires in Arteries Ineffective

Tiny wire scaffolds inserted into heart arteries after doctors clean out fatty buildups often fail to keep them open as intended, a study shows.

Doctors routinely insert balloons into the coronary arteries and inflate them to squeeze open blockages. But once the balloons are removed, the arteries frequently become clogged again. To solve this problem, researchers have developed a variety of strategies to clean the arteries better and hold them open afterward. One approach is to put tubes made of stainless steel wire into the arteries to prop them open.

However, in a report in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine, European doctors said these devices, known as stents, do not work as well as intended.

“The place of this form of treatment for coronary artery disease remains to be determined,” wrote Dr. Patrick W. Serruys and others from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

In the latest study, doctors inserted the stents after balloon angioplasty. After six months of follow-up on their first 105 patients, 23% of the stents were blocked solid with clots. Eight percent of the patients were dead within one year.