A Missouri school is part of what some have called one of the biggest “breakthroughs of the decade” in cardiac medicine. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new method of coating arterial stents used in angioplasty with a drug to prevent scar tissue from building up in the artery. Doctor John Lasala with Washington University in St. Louis – one of several dozens places in the country that conducted the field tests of the drug-coated stents – says this reduces the number of repeat visits to the cardiologist. Lasala says now with the drug on the stents, only about five percent of the cases will need to return for more angioplasty. Lasala says what researchers have learned from this trial could help prevent more invasive by-pass surgeries for other parts of the body.
