Vascular Medicine Abstracts: Stents, Frailty and Flavonoids

Seven Papers From the Vascular Medicine Session

Trials, registries and a standards update, with pointed discussion from the floor.

Antithrombotics After Iliac Vein Stenting

A randomized trial of clopidogrel against no treatment after stenting for nonthrombotic lesions found no significant difference so far, with low event rates and enrollment continuing. A single center review of 314 stented patients found roughly a third had a bleeding event, while loss of patency was 6 percent in nonthrombotic lesions against 26 percent in thrombotic disease. The floor argued that routinely anticoagulating a nonthrombotic lesion cannot be justified by that arithmetic.

What Else Moved

• Frailty predicted slower ulcer healing and more recurrence, and 16 percent of patients became frail during the first year.
• Exercise added to standard care improved healing in a meta-analysis of nine randomized trials, equally at home or in hospital.
• GLP-1 use showed an early healing signal in diabetic patients with venous ulcers that did not survive adjustment.

A standards talk reminded the room that the clinical class describes and should never be reported as a median, while the severity score is the instrument for following change over time.