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Doctors groups recommend a year of anticlotting drugs with stents

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 17, 2007

DALLAS - Heart patients who had drug-coated stents inserted to prop open blocked coronary arteries should stay on anticlotting drugs for at least a year, several doctors groups said in an advisory issued Tuesday.

They recommend that doctors tell their patients to take drugs like Plavix and aspirin for a year to reduce the risk of clotting, which could lead to a heart attack or death. The long-term safety of Plavix in stent patients has not been established.

Drug-coated stents are often chosen over bare metal stents because they slowly release medication that reduces the chance of arteries clogging again. However, the newer stents mean a small but significant increased risk of clotting.

The new advisory cited research showing blood clots in up to 29 percent of patients who stopped anticlotting drugs early after receiving a drug-coated stent. It also cited a study of 500 patients who received the drug-coated stents after a heart attack. Over the next 11 months, the death rate was 7.5 percent for those who stopped the medication and 0.7 percent for those who continued with it.

The American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, American College of Surgeons, and the American Dental Association issued the advisory.

[Last modified January 17, 2007, 01:24:14]