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| Date Archive : 8/28/2007 |
| Date Enter; : 8/28/2007 |
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Hour Enter : 12:11:57 AM |
| Resource : AP |
| Summery : ONDON - British heart doctors are trying to defeat a proposal to end government coverage of drug-coated heart stents, tiny metal-mesh tubes that prop open clogged arteries.
The proposal was made by Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which has the lead role in deciding what the country's health system pays for.
Tuesday is the deadline for members of the public to submit their comments on the recommendation. |
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Next week, the organization will meet to review the proposal alongside input from the public.
Any new restrictions would further batter the troubled drug-coated heart stents, which have come under increasing attack in the last year. The stents are commonly used in angioplasties, one of the world's most common medical procedures. More than 1 million such procedures are performed in the United States every year.
Through an artery in the leg, doctors snake a tube to blockages that are clogging vessels. A tiny balloon is inflated, and a mesh scaffold called a stent is left behind to prop the artery open.
Read more at : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_he_me/britain_heart_stents;_ylt=AornDnFyw4fPsGxPhh9n8ibVJRIF
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