It is believed that the rate of clot formation inside a coronary stent is three times higher than the previous procedures. Now a days, the majority of angioplasties involve placement of a stent - a tiny metal device, inside the coronary artery to keep it open. But the very act of placing a stent in the artery irritates the vessel walls and may promote formation of a clot - ironically, the actual problem which the procedure is supposed to prevent.
Till date, it has been thought that clot formation inside a stent was quite a rare event, affecting one per cent of patients. It is a serious complication, though, which often causes heart attack or sudden death. At the Dutch University Medical Center in the US, a new analysis was carried out by doctors which revealed that the clotting rate was three per cent more. Their investigation covered a larger group of patients who were, on the whole, at risk and required angioplasty.People with diabetes or who had had a previous heart attack were more likely to suffer a clot in their stent. In order to cut the complication rate, the researchers say that may be people should be given anti-clotting therapy for longer around the time of angioplasty and probably use stent coated with an anti-clotting material in future.
