For the second year in a row, results from a clinical trial announced at the annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference appeared to be bad news for coronary stents. The outcomes from the COURAGE trial, announced at this year’s ACC meeting in New Orleans at the end of March, found that angioplasty with stenting did not reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) when added to optimal medical therapy (OMT, which includes both pharmacological therapy and lifestyle changes) as an initial strategy for treating patients with stable coronary artery disease.
The COURAGE (Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Percutaneous Coronary Revascularization and Aggressive Guideline-Driven Drug Evaluation) study results capped off a year in...