Community Physicians Successful at Carotid Stenting

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Using a stent to unclog arteries that supply blood to the brain may soon become more common.

New research reveals, with the right education and training, community physicians are just as successful at using carotid stenting in high-risk surgical patients as those who pioneered the procedure at major university medical centers.

During carotid stenting, a physician threads a catheter through a small incision in a leg artery to the narrowed neck artery, which supplies blood to the brain. A filter is placed through the catheter to protect the brain from stray clots. A stent is then placed in the blockage and expanded with a balloon to hold the artery open. The filter is collapsed and removed after the procedure is complete.

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Rx Acculink carotid stent and Accunet filter for patients at high risk of having plaque surgically removed.

The CAPTURE study -- which stands for Carotid ACCULINK/ACCUNET Post-Approval Trial to Uncover Unanticipated or Rare Events -- wanted to answer several questions including whether carotid stenting could safely make the leap to everyday use or be limited to expert physicians.

"The ability to transfer the technology to the community was successful," reports researcher William A. Gray, M.D., from Columbia University in New York. "The study involved multiple physician specialties, multiple experience levels, and multiple sites with very broad geographic representation, and demonstrated that regardless of these differences outcomes were similar across the board."

Gray says the CAPTURE trial is a major step toward the goal of having non-surgical carotid stenting someday replace more invasive surgery as the treatment of choice for preventing strokes.

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SOURCE: Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, published online Dec. 14, 2006