Opening up blocked arteries with angioplasty gives better short and long term outcomes after a heart attack than do clotbusting drugs.

Researchers at the University of Texas have reviewed 23 clinical trials covering 7,700 patients with heart attack, in an effort to discover the most effective treatment. Angioplasty involves inserting a balloon into the blocked artery and then inflating it, so widening the vessel and improving blood supply to the heart. A clotbusting drug works by dissolving the clot that is blocking the artery.

In the short term - four to six weeks - seven per cent of those given angioplasty died, compared to nine per cent of those given clotbusters. The figures for recurrence of (non-fatal) heart attack were three per cent and seven per cent, respectively. These differences were maintained for six to 18 months. This analysis was, however, applicable only to those patients suffering the most severe kind of heart attack.

Source

The Lancet 4th January 2003