By Elena Berton
MarketWatch
Copyright 2007 MarketWatch, Inc

VIENNA, Austria — Heart surgeons should use caution when deciding to fit drug-coated stents on patients with heart attacks, according to a study presented Tuesday at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Vienna, Austria.

An analysis of a patient database from 94 hospitals in 14 countries has found that the risk of developing potential fatal blood clots with drug-coated stents may be greater in patients suffering from heart attack.

Lead author Gabriel Steg, of the Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris, France, said that higher death rates among patients with drug-coated stents, when compared with bare-metal stents, in a two-year follow-up were related to patients treated for heart attack. People with heart attack are at high risk of developing blood clots.

Full Story: Drug-coated stents should be cautiously used, some experts say