ORLANDO, FLORIDA - Doctors may keep open a blocked artery with a mesh tube, but as Dick Cheney discovered months last, these so-called coronary stents sometimes clog. Researchers are looking for new ways to limit the growth of cells that lodge in the devices. Now, a preliminary report suggests that ethanol can help keep clear stents.
Between 20% to 30% of patients who have stents inserted end with their reclogged arteries. A variety of new techniques are tested to fight against the dangerous buildup, such as the treatment of stents with radioactive material or covered with chemotherapy chemicals.
Knowing that ethanol can stop the growth of cells, a team led by cardiologist Ming Liu of the University of Alabama, Birmingham, tested a new procedure on 46 patients. Before inserting the stent, researchers have applied in a dilute ethanol solution to a portion of the artery which has been expanded using a small device balloon. Study patients had damage to their arteries that stretched for 10 millimeters or less. These patients normally represent a chance of clogged stents 15% to 20%. But a year after the operation, only 7% of patients treated with ethanol required to have their repaired stents, Liu reported here on March 18 at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology.
While encouraged by the early results, cardiologist Lawrence Laslett from the University of California, Davis, warned: "We must be careful with the use of alcohol may be toxic to the muscle heart. ". He is optimistic, however, that this and other new techniques could prevent accumulation of tissue inside stents.
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