CT scans a less-invasive way to check on stents; Water-pipe smoking may pose same risks as cigarettes

CT scans may be able to replace more invasive techniques to check whether heart devices called stents have become overgrown and need clearing, Dutch researchers reported last week.

Stents are tiny wire-mesh tubes inserted into clogged arteries. In some cases, especially with older metal stents, the devices can themselves become clogged with scar tissue.

Dr. Jeroen Bax of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands tested multislice imaging in 182 patients with 192 previously implanted stents. Of the total, images from 7%, or 14, of the stents were too blurry to read. In the remaining 178 stents, CT scans correctly identified 19 of 20 blocked stents.

Bax believes the technology could spare some patients the discomfort of angiography, which requires the insertion of a thin tube called a catheter into a small opening in the groin and threading it through blood vessels.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Smokers at risk from water pipes

Smoking from a water pipe may pose the same health risks as cigarettes, the World Health Organization said last week, adding that there’s a need for more research into the link between hookahs and a number of fatal illnesses.

The hookah, used for centuries in North Africa, the Middle East and Central and South Asia, has become increasingly popular in the West, particularly among college students and young adults. Hookah bars have sprung up in cities across the U.S., and groups of people often visit them to relax and talk.

The WHO, however, warned that using the water pipe to smoke tobacco is “not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking.” In a seven-page document, the U.N. health agency said the rising popularity of hookahs was partly due to “unfounded assumptions” of safety and misleading commercial marketing.

From Times wire reports