Patients who are receiving stents—drug-coated heart devices—have four to five times an increased risk of developing blood clots, according to a new data analysis.
The analysis conducted by the Cleveland Clinic was of 14 studies involving 6,675 patients. The results are sure to cause concern over the safety of these small, wire-mesh devices used to hold open arteries that have been surgically cleared.
Blood clots, or thrombosis, may lead to severe injury such as heart attack or death.
“Our analysis found that there is a small, but real hazard of late stent thrombosis with drug-eluting stents more so than with bare-metal stents, likely in the setting of discontinuation of anti-clotting drugs,” said Cleveland Clinic official Dr. Deepak Bhatt.
However, Bhatt added that this analysis does not necessarily mean that drug stents should no longer be used since it has been proven that they are more effective than the bare metal kind.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s panel of experts will meet next week to discuss the safety of drug-coated stents.