Its all about the spin

Implications: This article could easily be spun as a victory for stent efficacy.

Analysis:  In essence, this article is stating that at about 3 years, there is no significant outcome between patients that have traditional pharmacalogical intervention and those that recieve cardiac stents.  This sounds a lot like a great victory for stents!  Medication compliance is a chronic problem all clinicians encounter on a regular basis.  A prescription of lifestyle modification is often the hardest for the patient to follow.  Stents have never proported to be a panacea for cardiovascular disease, but I think that this study could easily be spun to show that patients can avoid medications and their side effects for 3 years.  Of course, in practice, any patient that receives a stent will also be treated with an appropriate medical regimen.  A study of stent plus medication versus medication alone would be more meaningful.