Study: Drug-coated stents perform well

CHICAGO, March 30 (UPI) -- Drug-coated stents did not increase the risk of death or another heart attack when used to treat heart attack patients, a U.S. study found.

MarketWatch reported Sunday the study compared drug-coated stents to bare-metal stents. The study found that drug-coated stents performed better in preventing a re-narrowing of the cardiac arteries.

Results of the study were announced Sunday at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention's annual conference in Chicago.

The study included two-year, risk-adjusted data from more than 7,200 patients who were treated with stents in Massachusetts hospitals to prop open heart arteries following a heart attack, MarketWatch reported.

Dr. Laura Mauri, an interventional cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and lead investigator of the study, said the results were reassuring.

"I would feel comfortable considering drug-eluting stents on the basis of these results -- with the caveats that treated patients must be able to take anti-platelet therapy and that we definitely want to see even longer-term term follow up," Mauri said in a statement.