Angioplasty shows better long term results than drug treatment

Heart attack victims who received primary angioplasty had much better long term survival and less likelihood of a second heart attack than patients who got thrombolytic therapy with intravenous streptokinase, according to new study (New England Journal of Medicine 1999;341:1413-9)

Several recent studies have already suggested that angioplasty provides better short term results than thrombolytic drugs. But long term comparisons of the two treatments, the most common first line treatments for heart attacks, have not been done

The present study, led by Dr Felix Zijlstra of Weezenlander Hospital in the Netherlands, looked ata total of 395 patients with acute myocardial infarction who were randomly assigned to treatment …