Steady improvements in procedures and techniques for treating coronary artery disease have been made over recent decades. Now a large-scale research study has shown that these advances have in fact improved patient outcomes.

The study compared the outcomes in 1,559 patients having their first coronary intervention in 1997-98 to those of 2,431 patients treated in the 1985-86 period. Even though the patients in the more recent group had more unstable and complex coronary disease, their rate of success was higher. Rates of complications were lower; there were fewer in-hospital deaths, heart attacks, or need for emergency coronary bypass surgery.

One of the major differences was stent use: 70.5% of the more recent patients received stents, while none in the earlier group did. The authors of the study concluded that the results of percutaneous coronary intervention have improved substantially over the past decade.