Analgesic may help heart surgery patients -- study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A commonly used analgesic might help preserve the benefits of angioplasty, an operation done to clear out clogged arteries, researchers said on Tuesday.

They found that sulindac may reduce the risk of a harmful side-effect of angioplasty called neointimal formation, marked by a build-up of smooth muscle cells in the arterial wall. This build-up can help re-block an artery.

Sulindac is one of a class of drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that include aspirin and ibuprofen.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published on Tuesday, a team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, all in New York, reported that sulindac reduces neointimal formation by up to 70 percent in mice given a procedure resembling angioplasty.

The researchers also found that mice with high cholesterol levels had twice as much neointimal formation as normal mice.

Aspirin, which is used to prevent arteries from becoming clogged again after angioplasty, did not significantly reduce neointimal formation in the study, the researchers said.

Sulindac has also been shown to help reduce the risk of colon cancer and the growth of polyps believed to develop into colon cancer.

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