Balloon angioplasty can cause trauma to the wall of the artery, sometimes causing platelets to clump together and form a blood clot. Researchers found that if they gave patients eptifibatide intravenously just before, during and after balloon angioplasty, the complications were greatly reduced in the 48 hours following the procedure. The number of deaths and heart attacks was reduced by 40 percent. The need to perform a second emergency angioplasty or bypass surgery was reduced by 40 percent. The study was discontinued early, Tcheng said, because there was such a significant difference in outcomes between those who received eptifibatide and those who received the placebo.
Researchers are excited for another reason.
One of the main reasons is because of cost. We think we've finally eliminated the financial barrier to using this. To put the study in perspective, there are more than 600,000 people in the United States who undergo balloon angioplasty each year. More than 80 percent of these procedures place a stent, a mesh-like device that helps hold the artery open. All rights reserved.