My gut feeling is that ABC is attempting to stop the hemorrhaging and the rating decline,'' said David Miller, an analyst with Sander Morris Harris in Los Angeles. But my gut feeling is that I still think there is some kind of corruption in the game.
Current guidelines for patients on OAC undergoing PCI were drafted mainly on the basis of observational data and state that a minimum of 4 weeks of triple therapy after bare-metal stent (BMS) implantation and 1 to 12 months of therapy after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation should be considered 5; 6; 11 ; 12.
Many of these lesions recur and the artery has another obstruction within a short period. This occurs in 40 percent of angioplasties within six months after PTCA. A stent is a short hollow tube. It is placed in the artery at the site of the former blockage. It holds the artery open. Initially, bare metal stents were used. Compared with no stents, re-obstruction rates at six months after angioplasty were cut in half, to 20 percent, and few re-obstructions were seen more than a year after treatment. Drug eluting stents, or DES, were developed to try to further reduce the rate of re-obstruction. These stents are metal with a polymer coating and a drug, either sirolimus or paclitaxel, mixed into the polymer. The drug is delivered to the area of the opened artery over a period of up to a year.