On May 17, less than two weeks from now, U.S. patent protection will end for Plavix (clopidogrel), the best-selling antiplatelet drug made by Bristol-Myers Squibb / Sanofi-Aventis. In 2010, worldwide sales of Plavix topped $6 billion (yes…billion!). For a typical stent patient, one 75mg tablet of Plavix a day costs more than $210 a month. Those with drug-eluting stents (80% or more of patients) must take Plavix for a year minimum. So the required medication actually can cost more than the stent itself. Continue reading
Category Archives: Patient Experience
Attention Stent Patients: Plavix Going Generic!
Filed under Antiplatelet Medications, Patient Experience
Myocardial Bridging: Heart Patients and Social Networking
Reyna Roble
Angioplasty.Org’s Heart Patient Forum contains 10,000 posts in 200 topics; it receives 50,000 page views a month, from Boston and Biloxi to Britain and Bangladesh. Patients share stories and questions about heart disease, stents, angioplasty, bypass surgery, allergic reactions, medications and the occasional “odd” topic — in this case “Myocardial Bridging.”
Well, not so odd to Reyna Robles, one of the many women who have posted to this topic, trying to find help, trying to find others in their situation, trying to find answers. Continue reading
Filed under Myocardial Bridging, Patient Experience, Social Networking
Remarkable Stent Procedure
As I have written before, many, many times, our Patient Forum on Angioplasty.Org is filled with thousands of patients asking questions that were not sufficiently answered by their doctors, patients wanting to know more about their procedure, their disease, why they feel the way they do after the procedure, how much activity is “safe”, why they still have a pain in their leg, etc., etc., etc. Continue reading
Filed under Heart Attack, Patient Experience
Transradial Stent in New Jersey
This 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
Filed under Patient Experience, Transradial Approach
AAA Stent Graft Revisited
Last year at this time, I wrote about a patient who had been posting in our Patient Forum. He had received a stent graft to treat an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and wanted to share his story, and also wanted to find other AAA patients. This type of aneurysm was previously only treatable via open surgery. But with advances in device technology, patients were able to receive a AAA stent graft percutaneously, through a catheter in the femoral artery (groin/leg) much like standard angioplasty. Continue reading
Stent By Wrist in Houston
“A new twist on stents” is how Channel 13 KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Houston, billed Christi Myers’ story today about the transradial approach to angioplasty and stenting. We’ve been writing about the growing adoption of radial access in the U.S. for four years now, so it’s great to see a TV report on this technique…because it means that patients in that locale (Houston, Texas) will be that much more aware that there is an option, a choice to be made, when having to get an angiogram, angioplasty or stent placed. (The piece profiles Dr. Colin Barker of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.) Continue reading
Filed under Media Coverage, Patient Experience, Transradial Approach
Heart Stent Success Stories
I just wanted to share a patient’s posting from earlier today on Angioplasty.Org’s Patient Forum Topic titled, “Exercise, Sport, Physical Activity After Stent“:
It’s great to hear of everyone’s victories recovery-wise, both major and minor. I had 3 coronary stents in Nov 2010 during 3 separate procedures and the cardio told me exercise as I wish… So, 2 10km running races and a half-marathon completed since the stents went in, and I’m now training for triathlons! Continue reading
Filed under Patient Experience, Patients, Social Networking
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