Cardiac patients who received XIENCE stents reported a good quality of life and felt better sooner compared to those who underwent open-heart surgery, researchers said at a recent conference in Denver.
That conclusion was reported at the 29th Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting, a yearly symposium sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. The report included data on patient quality of life, measured at intervals ranging from one month to three years following implants of XIENCE stents, which are produced by Abbott.
"For any treatment, it's important to not only consider clinical outcomes such as recurrent heart attacks or stroke, but also to consider the effect of the treatment on a patient's quality of life," said Dr. Suzanne Baron, study investigator and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "These data demonstrate that PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) is a reasonable treatment option for patients with left-main coronary artery disease that allows them to potentially avoid surgery and to rapidly obtain a better quality of life after revascularization."
Recipients self-reported symptoms including angina, breathing difficulty, depression and other conditions. The first two symptoms showed consistent results after one year and three years, while depression registered as less frequent regardless of other variables, such as co-existing conditions.
Dr. Charles Simonton, Abbott’s vascular business chief medical officer, said the data “provide confidence that XIENCE can be considered as a potential option for many types of patients with coronary artery disease.”
PCI is a nonsurgical procedure designed to improve blood flow to the heart.
