"Our main finding," Dr. Ross Tsuyuki told Reuters Health, "was that those receiving revascularization procedures -- bypass surgery or percutaneous coronary intervention (angioplasty, for example) -- had half the risk of dying compared to those who did not."

Tsuyuki, at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, and colleagues used data from the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH) study to review the survival rates of 1690 patients with heart failure who had coronary artery disease treated medically and 2538 who underwent coronary revascularization surgery.

According to the team's report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the crude 1-year death rate was 11.8 percent among patients who underwent revascularization compared with 21.6 percent among those who did not.

"We did a number of statistical adjustments to account for differences in patient characteristics and factors which might influence the decision to revascularize, but came up with the same conclusion," Tsuyuki explained.

"All patients with heart failure should be assessed for coronary artery disease blockages and, if feasible, be considered for revascularization," he concluded.

SOURCE: Canadian Medical Association Journal, August 15, 2006.