This site has been developed to help you explore ways in which you and your family can increase your chances of living a long and healthy life, free from the problems that heart disease brings.

Coronary Heart Disease is responsible for 25% of deaths in men and 18% of deaths in women in Merseyside each year, many of them could be avoided.

If you live in St Helens & Knowsley, and have coronary heart disease tell us about your experience of our services

Breakthrough in Angina Treatment

A small tube shaped structure called a 'stent' is commonly used to keep the coronary artery open following a procedure called an angioplasty. The procedure involves an inflatable balloon being guided into a narrowed area of the coronary artery and inflated to widen the artery. The balloon is then withdrawn leaving the stent in place to keep the artery open and relieve the symptoms of angina by increasing the blood flow to the heart muscle. While this is a very effective treatment for most people, in one in five patients the stent fails and the symptoms return. The results of an European wide research trial has found that adding anti-cancer drugs to the stent can dramatically improve the outcome of the procedure.
Seventy people have been involved in the trial in the UK.Dr Anthony Gershlick from the University Hospital of Leicester found that the addition of an anti-malignancy drug called Paclitaxel to the stent has reduced the failure rate to almost zero. The treatment works by a slow release of the drug which prevents new tissue growing inside the stent and re-blocking it. This looks like a very promising break through which will make the use of stents in angioplasty much more effective.

Reported in the Daily Mail page 48 on Tuesday 2nd October 2001