New heart stents better than old ones, study says(视频)

中国日报网 2012-09-05 11:17

分享到

 

Get Flash Player

Get Flash Player

Download

Stents are used to keep coronary arteries open after a procedure called angioplasty. Some stents contain medicine that is released over time. It was thought that these stents would be more effective than plain metal ones, but early studies showed patients who had medicated stents were more llikely to have a heart attack than patients who got plain stents. Now there's a new generation of stents that release medication and a new study about their performance.

A heart stent is a mesh tube made of metal that, when inserted into an artery, keeps it open.

Stents can be metal only or they can contain medicine released once the stent is in place.

These are called drug-eluting stents. And the medication they release helps the artery remain open so blood can easily flow through it.

But studies show that even with drug-eluting stents, some patients still have heart attacks. And earlier studies concluded that drug-eluting stents could actually increase the risk.

Dr. Stephan Windecker heads the interventional cardiology program at Bern University Hospital in Switzerland. He organized a study on a new generation of drug-eluting stents and compared them to the plain metal variety.

“There were concerns that, actually, these drug-eluting stents may lead to adverse events such as occlusion [closing] of the artery with blood clots," said Windecker.

Dr. Windecker and other researchers studied more than 1,000 heart patients who were having an emergency heart procedure. About half received a bare-metal stent while the rest received the latest medicated stent. The medicine was on a biodegradable substance.

“That is a polymer which degrades into water and carbon dioxide during a period of six to nine months after the drug has been released and renders the stent surface more closely to a bare-metal stent," he said.

A year later, the researchers found those who got the drug-eluting stent had fewer heart problems than those who received the bare-metal variety.

“The occurrence of new heart attacks within that treated segment was slower with the biodegradable polymer as compared to the bare-metal stent, and it reduces the incidences of serious cardiovascular events by more than 50 percent," said Windecker.

Dr. Windecker says these newest drug-eluting stents made with polymers that dissolve are better than other medicated stents made with polymers that don't dissolve.

Ideally, a layer of cells that lines the artery will grow over the stent, making it, in a sense, part of the body.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

heart stent: 心脏支架

相关阅读

Health Experts: One last push needed to eliminate polio(视频)

Indicators show US economic recovery slow, uneven(视频)

The legal battle between Apple and SamsungDownloa

Learning First Aid: What to do until medical help arrives

(来源:VOA 编辑:Julie)

 

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。

中国日报网双语新闻

扫描左侧二维码

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我们这儿都有!

中国日报双语手机报

点击左侧图标查看订阅方式

中国首份双语手机报
学英语看资讯一个都不能少!

关注和订阅

本文相关阅读
人气排行
热搜词
 
 
精华栏目
 

阅读

词汇

视听

翻译

口语

合作

 

关于我们 | 联系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版权声明:本网站所刊登的中国日报网英语点津内容,版权属中国日报网所有,未经协议授权,禁止下载使用。 欢迎愿意与本网站合作的单位或个人与我们联系。

电话:8610-84883645

传真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn