So, Which Is It?

You had to read VERY carefully to know what is being reported at a European cardiologist meeting about the controversy surrounding drug-eluting stents. From the New York Times:

Studies Say Newer Stents for Arteries Show Promise

Makers of stents and many cardiologists who implant them said yesterday that reports at this year’s major meeting of European cardiologists bolstered their confidence in the safety of the newer drug-coated versions of the devices, which are used to prop open coronary arteries.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Drug-Coated Stents Are Questioned

VIENNA -- Patients given drug-coated stents after an acute heart attack are nearly five times as likely to die six months to two years later as those with bare metal forms of the arterial scaffolding, new research showed.

The difference? The Times was looking at a study that looked at the routine placement of drug-eluting stents in people with angina and minor blockages; the Journal looked a study of drug-eluting stents put in people who had suffered a heart attack.