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Stents and surgery no better than medication, lifestyle changes at reducing the risk for heart attack

Press releases may be edited for formatting or style | March 30, 2020 Cardiology
Invasive procedures such as bypass surgery and stenting--commonly used to treat blocked arteries--are no better at reducing the risk for heart attack and death in patients with stable ischemic heart disease than medication and lifestyle changes alone. However, such procedures offer better symptom relief and quality of life for some patients with chest pain, according to two new, milestone studies.

The studies, designed to settle a decades-old controversy in cardiology, appear online March 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine. While researchers released preliminary findings last November at the American Heart Association annual meeting, the papers published today report the official outcomes of the International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches (ISCHEMIA), the largest and one of the most consequential studies of its kind.

Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, the trial followed more than 5,000 patients with stable heart disease and moderate to severe heart disease for a median of 3.2 years. It compared an initial conservative treatment strategy to an invasive treatment strategy. The conservative treatment strategy involved medications to control blood pressure, cholesterol, and angina (chest discomfort caused by inadequate blood to the heart), along with counseling about diet and exercise. The invasive treatment strategy involved medications and counseling, as well as coronary procedures performed soon after patients recorded an abnormal stress test. The trial allowed tests that assess coronary blood flow restriction, called ischemia, to determine who could participate in the study.

"Previous studies have reached similar conclusions as ISCHEMIA, but they were criticized for not including patients who had severe enough disease to benefit from the procedures. ISCHEMIA studied only patients with the most abnormal stress tests," said Yves Rosenberg, M.D., study co-author and chief of NHLBI's Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease Branch. "These findings should be applied in the context of careful attention to lifestyle behaviors and guideline-based adherence to medical therapy, and will likely change clinical guidelines and influence clinical practice."

He cautioned patients in the meantime to confer with their doctors to determine what strategies are best for them.

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