Laser Therapy Plus Medication Effective for Angina

A study has shown that catheter-delivered laser therapy combined with medication is more effective for treating angina in heart patients than medication alone. The procedure is indicated for patients with severe chest pain who cannot undergo angioplasty or bypass surgery. The study, conducted by researchers at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center (Chicago, IL, USA), was published in the November issue of The Lancet.

In the procedure, a cardiologist makes a small puncture near the patient's groin and steers a catheter through a blood vessel inside the heart. Once there, laser impulses create tiny channels in the heart muscle to promote better blood flow and angiogenesis. According to the developer of the procedure, it can be performed under a local anesthesia and is less invasive than other laser heart procedures, which require general anesthesia and a surgical incision.
The study involved 221 subjects with severe chest pain, of whom 100 were randomly assigned to receive the procedure, called percutaneous transmyocardial laser revascularization (PTMR) along with medication such as a calcium channel blocker, while 111 received the medication alone. After 12 months, the patients who received both PTMR and medication showed an 89-second improvement (without chest pain) over their baseline treadmill test, compared to only 12 seconds for the medication-only group. More than a third of the PTMR patient group reported their chest pain decreased from severe categories to more moderate while only 13% of the medication-only group said their chest pain improved. The PTMR procedure was developed by Eclipse Surgical Technologies (Sunnyvale, CA, USA).

"for these people, who are severely ill and suffering from debilitating chest pain every day, this procedure can vastly improve their quality of life,” said Michael J. Quinn, chairman and CEO of Eclipse.



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