For patients with clogged arteries who have not had a heart attack, the widely used surgical treatment of balloon angioplasty with the insertion of a stent is no better than conventional drug treatment, researchers said Monday

In a study of more than 2,000 patients, those receiving only drug therapy had the same number of heart attacks, strokes and deaths as those who received the medication and underwent artery-opening angioplasty, researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs told a meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

The only difference was a slight improvement in quality of life for those receiving angioplasty because of fewer chest pains, known as angina.

The findings deal a blow to the stent industry, which sells an estimated $3.2 billion worth of the devices each year in the United States. About 1 million stenting procedures are performed each year, costing about $40,000 per surgery. About 65% are performed on patients such as those in the study.

Stent makers criticized the studying, saying it said nothing new and failed to look at the newest generation of drug-eluting, or medicated, stents.

Experts also cautioned that the results do not apply to patients who have suffered a heart attack because of a blockage in the coronary artery. Numerous studies have shown that angioplasty is the gold standard for such patients, and physicians urge that it be implemented as soon as possible to restore blood flow to the heart.

But in non-emergency situations, the drugs act fast enough to forestall the need for angioplasty.

The study, called the Courage Trial, enrolled 2,287 patients at 15 VA medical centers and 35 hospitals in the United States and Canada.

It was sponsored primarily by the VA and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Most of the researchers involved have received consulting and lecture fees from major drug companies.

All the patients had at least a 70% blockage of their coronary artery and chest pains several times per week. Most also had high cholesterol and blood pressure, and many had diabetes.

All of the patients were placed on multiple medications, including beta-blockers, ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors and diuretics to lower blood pressure, statins to decrease cholesterol and blood thinners to prevent clots. The drug treatments typically cost at least $1,500 a year, according to the American Heart Assn.

The patients were counseled about lifestyle programs for smoking cessation, increased exercise and a better diet.

Half the patients also underwent angioplasty, and most of them received a stent — a wire-mesh tube inserted into the artery to hold it open after the balloon is withdrawn. The balloon and the stent are threaded into the coronary artery through a small incision in the groin.

After an average of 4.6 years of monitoring, there were 211 deaths, heart attacks or strokes in the group receiving angioplasty and 202 in the group receiving only drug therapy — a difference the study deemed statistically insignificant.

The only difference between the two groups was that angioplasty patients had fewer symptoms of angina — although even that difference was not as large as had been expected.

After three years, 67% of those in the angioplasty group were free of angina, compared to 62% in the medication-only group.

The overall results should not be that surprising, said Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of the cardiovascular institute at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York.