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Patient Alert: Proof That Having a Stent Placed Using Fractional Flow Reserve is Better for You!
FFR wire measuring intracoronary pressure
FFR wire measuring intracoronary pressure
Latest studies confirm that measuring Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) to guide the placement of stents leads to better outcomes for patients! In January 2012 a major trial called FAME II was stopped after only two-thirds of patients were enrolled -- because the data showed clearly that results for stable angina patients, whose stents were placed using this latest guidance technology, were so superior that regulators at the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board determined it was "unethical" to assign patients to the group getting drug treatment only, without stenting!
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These results are quite different than previous studies, featured in newspaper headlines, which showed that for stable angina patients, getting a stent was no better than being treated with medication and life-style changes.

The difference? Doctors in the FAME II study were using new techniques to measure more precisely the blood flow in each narrowed artery before placing a stent, thereby avoiding unnecessary procedures.

One more reason to ask your doctor if she or he uses FFR and IVUS. For more, read "New Techniques Can Help Doctors Decide Who Needs A Stent Does Your Cardiologist Use IVUS and FFR?"

In-Depth To see what physicians are saying and reading about these technologies, visit our Intravascular Guidance Center.

 

Reported by Deborah Shaw, Patient Education Editor, June 1, 2012