--- title: "Stent Research: More Data, But What Does It Mean for You?" url: https://seconds-count.org/blog/stent-research-more-data/ description: "Physicians' Blog post from the January 2008 archive of Seconds-Count.org, reproduced from the file." --- # Stent Research: More Data, But What Does It Mean for You? [‹ Return to the January 2008 archive](https://seconds-count.org/blog/) Posted under General by admin on Friday, January 25, 2008 In the source’s own words Just as patients are always on the look-out for news related to their condition, physicians are always eager to have solid research to help us provide the best possible patient care. If you are a cardiovascular patient, you can rest assured that there is no lack of research being done on the various therapies available to you! Just this week, two studies focused on drug-eluting stents and an accompanying commentary piece on the findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Like other recent cardiovascular research, these two studies have received a good amount of media coverage, and justifiably so – cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in America and the treatments used in these studies are performed on millions of our patients each year. Just as patients are always on the look-out for news related to their condition, physicians are always eager to have solid research to help us provide the best possible patient care. Here is my take on the two studies publicized this week. If you are interested in learning more about them, we’ve posted some additional information in Latest News. Drug-eluting stents are just as safe and are significantly more effective than bare metal stents, particularly in sicker patients. Although patients have improved results with drug-eluting stents, patients with two or more blocked arteries appear to do somewhat better with a major surgical operation on the heart called a coronary artery bypass graft (many of you know it simply as “bypass surgery”). It is important that you realize this comes from the early experience with drug-eluting stents and, like many other similar studies, the results may be reversed as we look further into this issue. Despite this issue, in these studies, patients who have diabetes did not show this difference and may, therefore, do even better than we expected with stents. Considering the two studies together, I’ve come to a broader, and perhaps more basic conclusion: At a time when communication is often on overload and information to guide our decision making is seemingly everywhere, so-called ‘old-fashioned’ face-to-face conversation between patient and doctor results in the best outcomes and the most satisfaction for patients. As you’re viewing health reports on the medical news or reading the headlines in your newspaper of choice, I’d ask you to keep this in mind – the best reason to be a well-informed patient is that you’ll be ready to ask your doctor good questions and you’ll more likely to feel good about the answers and the treatment you receive. [‹ Return to the January 2008 archive](https://seconds-count.org/blog/) ## Post record Original permalink: `/blog/?p=12` Source file: `blog/index.html` Comment count recorded in the source: No comment Original date: Friday, January 25, 2008 ## About this archive These pages reproduce what survived in the site backup of seconds-count.org: one 2007 homepage and one January 2008 monthly archive from the Physicians’ Blog. [Read the full archive note](https://seconds-count.org/about/) ## Source and dating Homepage source: `index.html`, headlines dated 8/21/2007 to 10/28/2007. Blog source: `blog/index.html`, four posts dated 1/17/2008 to 1/31/2008. Reviewed on this archive: 2007–2008 text, reproduced unchanged. ## Blog categories - [Cardiac CT](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#cardiac-ct) - [Children](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#children) - [General](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#general) - [Heart Disease](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#heart-disease) - [Heparin](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#heparin) - [Minimally Invasive](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#minimally-invasive) - [Statins](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#statins) - [Stents](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#stents) - [Stroke](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#stroke) - [Women](https://seconds-count.org/topics/#women) ## Blog archive months archive labels; only January 2008 survived with post content. - November 2008 - October 2008 - September 2008 - August 2008 - July 2008 - June 2008 - May 2008 - April 2008 - March 2008 - February 2008 - [January 2008](https://seconds-count.org/blog/) - December 2007 - November 2007 - October 2007 ## Editorial and source policy Every line of text on this site is reproduced from the 2007–2008 files. Nothing has been added, updated, expanded or re-worded. This site is a historical archive of pages published at seconds-count.org in 2007 and 2008. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions or any other medical society, certifying board, hospital or health authority. The reference to SCAI above is part of the original 2007 homepage text and describes the site as it stood then, not any current relationship.