Obesity may offer some protection after stenting

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Paradoxically, obesity may offer some protection against heart-related "events," like heart attack, in people who have a stent placed to prop open a clogged coronary artery, research shows.

In a study, researchers found that obese patients who had stents placed in diseased arteries had a lower incidence of adverse cardiac events than their normal-weight counterparts.

Larger randomized trials are needed to confirm or refute the obesity paradox seen in this and other relatively small studies of drug-eluting stents, Dr. Ahmed A. Khattab of the Segeberger Kliniken in Bad Segeberg, Germany, and colleagues note in a report in the American Journal of Cardiology. Click here for full article.