A new study published in The New England Journal Of Medicine had found that stenting an occluded coronary artery more than 24-hours after a heart attack shows no benefit. If anything, there was a ‘trend’ towards more recurrent heart attacks in the stenting group. Here’s a snippet from the abstract that sums it all up:
PCI did not reduce the occurrence of death, reinfarction, or heart failure, and there was a trend toward excess reinfarction during 4 years of follow-up in stable patients with occlusion of the infarct-related artery 3 to 28 days after myocardial infarction.
This is bad news for big business and those interventional cardiologists with their big catheters and fancy cars.
Read the abstract (or the article if you have access) here…