Angioplasty is a Better Option

Clot-dissolving therapy has been under scrutiny after a study on overdose of blood thinning drugs has come in to the picture. Angioplasty is now being recommended to reopen a blocked artery when the blood thinning drugs do not work.



The most common remedy that an US citizen receives when rushed to the hospital is get a dose of blood thinning drug. This is because many American hospitals do not have facility to do angioplasty on emergency basis.

This trial comes in a timely fashion, said Dr. Samin Sharma, director of interventional cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. His preliminary findings were presented at a recent medical meeting but the final word in print is yet to come. But the report has already started affecting the medical practice in the country.



Research, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, on 427 patients was carried out which stated that angioplasty is a better option when the clot buster does not work. The doctors used 427 heart attack patients at University of Leicester. Their arteries were not opened by clot-dissolving technique within ninety minutes of attack. Some got a conservative treatment and some went in for angioplasty.



A small catheter along with a small balloon fitted at its end is inserted in the artery and blown up. This opens up the clotted artery and the blood flow is resumed normally in such arteries. This report has been the one in series to promote heart attack patients to receive angioplasty treatment rather than clot-dissolving drugs. According to the report the survival rate of the patients was most in case of those who had undergone angioplasty rather than the one who received clot-dissolving drugs or more conservative treatment.

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