Those who are suffering from chest pain or other non-emergency heart symptoms do just as well with drugs as with angioplasties, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There was no advantage in terms of mortality or incidence of heart attacks among the non-emergency heart patients who received angioplasties. Furthermore, the procedure is not very effective in relieving chest pain, the researchers found, which is one of the primary reasons for doing it.

After five years, the difference in symptoms between the group with angioplasties and the group that received drugs alone was not considered significant, according to Dr. William Boden of Buffalo General Hospital in New York, who lead the research.