Study: Medicine enough for pain in chest?

[cezene]

Thousands of people with crushing chest pain who once opted for angioplasty as a quick fix may change their minds based on a landmark study out Monday showing that medication costs less, poses fewer risks and works just as well.
"I think this will change the discussion between the patient and doctor," says Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic and president of the American Heart Association. "In some cases it will lead to a decision not to use angioplasty and a stent."

The study of 2,287 heart patients with chronic but stable chest pain is the first to show that taking medication alone is as effective as coupling medicines with angioplasty, in which a tiny balloon is threaded into arteries supplying the heart, for preventing deaths, heart attacks and hospitalization.

After five years, the researchers found no significant differences between the two groups in deaths, heart attacks or strokes.

Doctors say the findings in no way challenge the benefit of using emergency angioplasty to stop heart attacks before they damage the heart.