Heart Surgery Outcome May Be Worse in Blacks-study

[The Straight Story]

Heart Surgery Outcome May Be Worse in Blacks-study

Thursday, September 15, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The short-term rates of death or heart attack after heart surgery are comparable for blacks and whites, but there is trend toward worse long-term outcomes in blacks, researchers report in the European Heart Journal.

Previous reports have generally described little or no racial gap in the outcome of patients who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to restore blood flow to the heart. PCI typically involves angioplasty, in which a balloon-tipped catheter is snaked into a clogged heart artery to push aside blockages.

However, the investigators point out that various study design issues, such as a lack of long-term follow-up or small sample sizes, may have limited the ability of studies to reach firm conclusions.

To investigate further, Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio and colleagues assessed the long-term outcomes of 8,832 patients who underwent PCI at that institution between 1992 and 2002. The study group included 707 African Americans.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_26921.html