Angioplasty’s golden era may be fading
Reviewed By
Rating
Angioplasty’s golden era may be fading
Our Review Summary
This was an informative story exploring how medical therapy alone stacks up against medical therapy plus angioplasty as a treatment for coronary artery disease. It highlighted several important issues about medical practice and the treatment of coronary artery disease in particular. While the story never fully described the importance of randomized clinical trials for establishing whether treatment approaches provide the benefit they are thought to convey, it was clear from this story that several recent studies have failed to demonstrate superiority of angioplasty as a treatment for coronary artery disease. The story did mention that angioplasty is a beneficial treatment during a heart attack. The point to be made here is that just because it is an effective way of treating a heart attack does not mean that it is an effective way of preventing a heart attack.
Overall, a solid job with independent analyses, context, and data.
Criteria
Satisfactory
The story provided cost estimates for angioplasty. It would have been more complete to include comparable information about the costs of medical therapy.
Satisfactory
The story discussed the comparable outcomes of the two treatments in terms of heart attacks and death. It also explained that at least initially, angioplasty coupled with medical therapy provided relief of angina to more people (8%) than did medical therapy alone but that this difference between the treatments only lasted for 3 years.
Not Satisfactory
The story did not provide an explicit list of harms associated with either treatment. It did mention the increased clotting risks associated with one particular type of stent (drug-coated).
Satisfactory
The story mentioned several studies that compared people with coronary artery disease who were treated with angioplasty and medical therapy with those that received only medical therapy which found no difference in outcomes such as the numbers who had heart attacks. It also provided quantitative information about how the two treatment approaches compared in terms of symptom reduction
Satisfactory
For the most part, the story did not engage in overt disease mongering. That said, however, the story opened with a disease mongering vignette that involved medical protocols which were not the subject of the story. And describing angina as "crushing" and "debilitating" makes it seem worse on the average than it really is. However, the balance of the story did not use scare tactics when talking about coronary artery disease, and in using data to tell the story.
Satisfactory
Several cardiologists were interviewed for this story.
Satisfactory
The story covered two of the three treatment options for coronary artery disease. It would have been a more complete piece if it had included mention of coronary bypass surgery.
Satisfactory
The story was about the use of angioplasty (stents) and medical therapy as compared to medical therapy alone as treatment for coronary artery disease. From the discussion, it was clear that both treatments are currently in common use and appear to be widely available.
Satisfactory
It was clear from that the story was not about a novel form of treatment but rather a recent line of evaluation of two treatment approaches in current practice.
Satisfactory
It’s clear this story didn’t rely on a news release; it was based on independent analyses.
Total Score: 9 of 10 Satisfactory
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like