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Suctioning BloodClots Suggested

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The Associated Press

Published: February 7, 2008

NEW YORK - New research suggests that more people survive major heart attacks with fewer problems if doctors use a mini-vacuum to clear out an artery blockage instead of pushing it aside to restore blood flow.

The Dutch study is the largest to date to show that suctioning out the clot before implanting a stent has big benefits, and could lead to wider use in heart attack treatment. Previous smaller studies of various devices had mixed results.

"This study suggests that it is worth doing," said George Vetrovec, a heart disease expert at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Most heart attacks occur when a buildup of plaque in a coronary artery ruptures, and a blood clot forms, blocking the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart. The preferred treatment is an angioplasty to quickly reopen the artery.

Felix Zijlstra, who led the study at University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, tried a different approach, suctioning the clot out before inserting the stent, and found that reduced debris and improved blood flow. The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

For the study, doctors enrolled 1,071 patients who came to the hospital in 2005 or 2006 with a major heart attack and needed emergency angioplasty. Half received the conventional procedure; the other half had the blood clot suctioned out. Doctors threaded a small tube to the blockage and sucked out the clot with a syringe before putting in a stent.

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