Hadassah Combats Artery Re-clogging
13-Feb-2006
In one out of three patients whose blocked coronary arteries are opened by catheter and stent, vital vessels re-clog within days. Hadassah teams have come up with two alternatives to existing drug therapy for preventing these coronary arteries from re-clogging. One option involves tweaking the osteoporosis drug, alendronate, so that it swallows white cells that re-block the artery after angioplasty. The other, jointly created with a Hebrew University team, involves synthesizing a non-toxic, eco-friendly compound called tyrphostin and coating the stent with it to inhibit re-stenosis.
