Bivalirudin helps angioplasty survival

NEW YORK, May 27 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests heart attack victims administered the thrombin inhibitor bivalirudin during primary angioplasty had a lower mortality rate.

The Columbia University Medical Center study led by Dr. Gregg Stone, a professor of medicine, showed heart attack patients administered bivalirudin had a reduced rate of adverse clinical events during angioplasty, including a lower rate of major bleeding and a lower mortality rate than those treated with a regimen of heparin and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, or GPI.

Bivalirudin was compared with heparin plus GPI in more than 3,600 patients with ST-segment -- a specific electrocardiogram wave -- elevation in myocardial infarction, the most severe form of heart attack.

"The … data show that using bivalirudin instead of heparin with a GPI during angioplasty increases survival in heart attack patients who are at high risk for death or disability," Stone said. "As the first multicenter randomized primary angioplasty trial since the introduction of balloon angioplasty to show improved survival, we expect (the procedure) to have an immediate impact on which drug therapy cardiologists choose for their patients with heart attack."

The findings of the single-blind, multicenter study conducted in 11 nations appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.