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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The average time that angioplasty took in the trial was also very short, about 15 minutes, Dauerman noted. The procedure often can take as long as an hour to perform, and, in that case, "would be beyond the bounds of what was done in this trial," he said.
Giving heparin during angioplasty is standard procedure, although excess bleeding is always a concern. A study reported earlier this year said that a newer anti-clotting drug, bivalirudin, did not reduce the incidence of deaths, heart attacks and blood vessel complications but did lower the incidence of major bleeding events.
Because excess bleeding is a major concern, bivalirudin now is being used in 30 percent to 40 percent of artery-opening procedures in the United States, said Dr. Magnus Ohman, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Duke University.
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The Italian study is welcome, "because you always try to push the envelope a bit," Ohman said, but he agreed that more work is needed to confirm the results.
"I would like to see a multi-center trial with many different investigators, somewhat larger than this," Ohman said. Such a trial would allow enrollment of a wider variety of people undergoing angioplasty, he said. But even if such a trial was done successfully, heparin-free procedures probably would not be recommended for more than about 10 percent of people having angioplasty, Ohman said.
"Pushing the envelope like this doesn't mean conversion of practice," he said.
Much of the heparin used in the United States is manufactured in China. Heparin was in the news earlier this year, because batches contaminated by the chemical chondroitin sulfate caused 86 deaths and hundreds of illnesses in American recipients.
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The artery-opening procedures formally called percutaneous coronary interventions are described by the American Heart Association.
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