New research suggests that using a medical device from Little Canada-based St. Jude Medical could reduce the number of heart stents a patient needs.

 

The device measures the blood flow in partially blocked heart arteries. It uses a pressure-sensitive wire to guide the placement of tiny wire mesh tubes, or stents, used to keep arteries free of clots. This is quite different from the traditional angioplasty used in such cases.

 

According to the new study, led by William Fearon, an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, the device allows doctors to find precise spots where pressure drops along the blood vessels feeding the heart.

 

The study called FAME found that patients treated with standard technology received an average of 2.7 stents, compared with an average of 1.9 stents for those who underwent the St. Jude test.

 

How is that possible? The blood-flow test helps doctors separate those blockages that need to be treated with stents from those that can be treated safely with medicine.

 

“People err on the side of stenting when it may not be absolutely necessary. Not only were the outcomes better, the cost was less,” Dr. Fearon said.

 

Knowing that heart disease is going to ravage the United States and not only, such a discovery is worth millions. According to the American Heart Association, about 40 percent of Americans over the age of 60 have one or more narrowings in their coronary arteries and more than 1.2 million angioplasty procedures in which clogged arteries are cleaned out with the help of a stent.