Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the Food and Drug Administration will be holding the hearings to recommend stricter regulation on the use of drug-coated stents on thursday.
The panel will weigh evidence that the stents, which were developed to keep coronary arteries open after they have been cleared of plaque, can in some cases cause fatal blood clots months or even years after they have been put in patients.