RX : DRUG THERAPY CAN REDUCE RISKS IN HEART-BYPASS SURGERY.Byline: Angela La Voie Medical Tribune News Service The experimental drug acadesine can help reduce complications in people undergoing heart-bypass surgery, a new report finds. Based on an analysis of data from all the clinical trials of the drug - comprising 4,043 patients undergoing bypass surgery Bypass surgery A surgical procedure that grafts blood vessels onto arteries to reroute the blood flow around blockages in the arteries (arteriosclerosis). at 81 medical centers in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , Canada and Europe - researchers concluded that the use of acadesine resulted in fewer heart attacks, incidents of early cardiac death and other complications, such as stroke. ``These results demonstrate for the first time that severe heart-related injury associated with bypass surgery ... can be prevented,'' wrote researcher Dr. Dennis T. Mangano of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. ``This is an important advance. It suggests that there are ways to protect the heart and the brain during open-heart surgery,'' said Dr. Richard Heuser, director of interventional cardiology interventional cardiology Cardiology The subspecialty of cardiology dedicated to the diagnosis, medical and mechanical therapy, pre- and post-procedure management of adult patients with acute and chronic forms of cardiovascular disease amenable to catheter-based at the Arizona Heart Institute and Foundation in Phoenix. Overall, the drug reduced heart attack by 27 percent and cut in half the risk of cardiac death within four days of the surgery, Mangano reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. . A total of 2,012 patients received acadesine intravenously before, during and shortly after bypass surgery, while the other 2,031 patients received a placebo. Acadesine, made by Gensia Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, helps to improve blood flow to the heart, Mangano said. During bypass surgery - the most commonly performed major operation in the United States - a blood vessel blood vessel n. An elastic tubular channel, such as an artery, a vein, a sinus, or a capillary, through which the blood circulates. blood vessel(s), n the network of muscular tubes that carry blood. is grafted onto a blocked heart artery to ``bypass'' an obstruction and restore blood flow to the organ. The number of patients worldwide who undergo heart-bypass surgery has increased dramatically over the past 20 years to more than 800,000 patients annually, resulting in health-care costs exceeding $20 billion, according to Mangano. The only noted side effect of acadesine was a short-term elevation of uric acid uric acid (y  r`ĭk), white, odorless, tasteless crystalline substance formed as a result of purine degradation in man, other primates, dalmatians, birds, snakes, and lizards. in the bloodstream. ``This could result in gout gout, condition that manifests itself as recurrent attacks of acute arthritis, which may become chronic and deforming. It results from deposits of uric acid crystals in connective tissue or joints. in some patients, but there were no problems with gout reported in these trials,'' noted Heuser. Gout is characterized by painful inflammation of the joints, especially in the feet and hands. Gensia provided funding for the study. |
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