Approval of the Xience drug

Recent studies linked the drug-coated stents to a high risk of blood-clot formation, compared to the earlier-generation bare-metal stents.

The steep decline in stent use was likely prompted by data from the COURAGE study, presented at a March cardiology conference in New Orleans, which suggested coronary stents -- tiny mesh tubes inserted in an artery that has been cleared of plague to prop open the artery -- combined with drug therapy appear no better at preventing chest pain known as angina than drug therapy alone, said the WSJ report.

NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- U.S. cardiac surgeons seem to have taken to heart recent evidence that cardiac stent therapy may not work any better than drugs for clogged arteries.

Approval of the Xience drug-eluting stent later this year.

Boston Scientific markets the Taxus drug-eluting stent, Johnson & Johnson sells the Cypher brand stent, while Abbott said it would file for U.

According to the Millenium survey, use of the drug-eluting stents now accounts for 69. Moreover, the data showed stents gave no better insurance against heart attack and death.S. Stenting procedures at 140 hospitals totaled about 71,200, according to a poll done by the Toronto-based Millennium Research Group, the newspaper reported.S.

According to a report published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, the number of coronary stents implanted in patients at U.

New scientific data are also thought to be the driving factor in a similar drop in the use of the newer-generation drug-eluting stents, or stents coated with a cancer drug like paclitaxel to prevent a condition called restenosis or the reclosing of the artery.7 percent as of April, down from 90 percent of all stenting procedures as of last June, WSJ said. aluminum fabrication hospitals dropped more than 15 percent in April compared with the number of such procedures performed in April 2006