Repeat Angioplasty Increases Heart Attack Risk
Patients who undergo more than one angioplasty to open a blocked heart vessel are more at risk of dying or having a heart attack, research has revealed in the American Journal of Cardiology.
In 9 months 34 percent of patients who underwent angioplasty again for the same blockage had experienced an adverse event compared with 19 percent of patients with no prior angioplasty. For patients with previous angioplasty of a different blockage, the corresponding proportion was 24 percent.
These findings have “reconfirmed the need for the development and trial of new methods to improve the outcomes of” patients undergoing repeat angioplasty.
Source: American Journal of Cardiology, September 15, 2005 via IOL
Filed under Health, Heart Disease
