Monthly Archives: February 2012

Stents vs. Pills — Summer Re-run in February

Pills vs. StentI’m looking at this morning’s news and I’m seeing headlines like these: “Stents Overused in Stable Heart Patients” (WebMD), “Pills as good as stents for stable heart patients” (Reuters), “No Extra Benefits Are Seen in Stents for Coronary Artery Disease” (New York Times), and “Stents no better than pills for some heart patients” (MassDevice) — and I think I have time-traveled half a decade back to March 2007 when the results of the COURAGE study were presented at the American College of Cardiology Annual Meeting. Continue reading

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Filed under Clinical Trials / Studies, COURAGE, Media Coverage, Stent

Transradial Stent in New Jersey

Transradial Angioplasty PatientThis is a picture of a patient, Nancy Vitale, who just had a blockage in her very complex, calcified and tortuous right coronary artery opened up with angioplasty and a stent. She is getting up off the cath lab table and walking to recovery, where she’ll be sitting up in a chair. For those readers familiar with angioplasty, you may be wondering why she is not lying flat on her back for four hours or more. The answer is “it’s all in the wrist”. Continue reading

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Filed under Patient Experience, Transradial Approach