Drugs Alone OK for Many Heart Patients

People with stable heart disease do just as well with medicines as with stenting to open clogged arteries, a new evidence review finds. The study focused on stable angina. This is chest pain that occurs during exercise or stress, but not at other times. It is caused by deposits in coronary arteries that limit blood flow. Many Americans are treated with angioplasty. A tiny balloon is blown up inside the artery to crush the blockage. Usually a tube called a stent is put in to keep the artery open. The new review put together results from 8 prior studies. They included 7,229 people with stable angina. They were randomly assigned to receive stenting plus standard heart medicines or medicines alone. Researchers kept track of them for an average of 4 years. About 9% of each group died. About 8.9% of the stent group and 8.1% of the medicine group had nonfatal heart attacks.