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Radiation Following Angioplasty Found to Help Keep Artery Open

From Times staff and wire reports

Bathing a heart artery with radiation after it has been reopened with an inflated balloon increases the chance that the artery will not close again, according to a study in the June 12 New England Journal of Medicine.

In tests of 26 volunteers, doctors put a wire stent in place and kept a tiny radioactive ribbon in the once-narrowed artery for 20 to 45 minutes. Another 29 people received only the stent. Six months later, the blood vessels had closed again in 17% of the patients who had the radiation treatment versus 54% in the placebo group.

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