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Platelet Inhibitor Therapy
Heart Drug Cuts Death and Heart Attack Rate By 40% in Angioplasty-Stent Procedure
March 31st, 2000
A drug designed to prevent blood clots from developing during a common heart procedure performed so well that the Duke University physicians who tested it predict it will alter medical practice. The drug eptifibatide (tradename Integrilin) cut deaths and heart attacks by 40% in the first 48 hours after it was used in patients who received a balloon angioplasty, which uses a catheter to press artery-obstructing plaque flat, and the implant of a stent, a mesh-like device that props the artery open. Eptifibatide's benefit was consistent in all groups of patients studied in the trial. The finding is important for patients because eptifibatide is a...
Source: Drug Week (2000-03-31)
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