Clot Buster Use Prior to Angioplasty Questioned
29th Sep 2005, 18:58 GMT
Giving heart attack patients a clot-busting drug within hours of planned angioplasty is fairly common practice today. However, new research indicates the practice could be a dangerous one. Study findings presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Cardiology found that more patients died in the month after the procedure if they were given the drug. The researchers found that 6 percent of patients who got the clotbuster drug, TNKase, died within 30 days of the angioplasty, compared with only 3.8 percent of those in the angioplasty alone group. The study, which had intended to enroll 4,000 patients, was stopped abruptly once the difference in death rates between the two groups was noted. Read Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments