This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Strokes can take place when fatty material blocks the flow ofblood through arteries in the body. Soon, brain cells die from thelack of blood. About one-hundred-fifty-thousand people die ofstrokes each year in the United States alone. Stroke is the thirdleading cause of death. Many more suffer permanent brain damage.

Blocked carotid arteries in the neck are a major cause ofstrokes. The traditional treatment is an operation. Doctors open andclean the arteries. Another treatment used in some countries now isthe Cordis Carotid Stent. Doctors use a small device that holds theartery open.

Patients can stay awake while doctors place the carotid stentinside an artery. They also can recover faster than from thetraditional surgery. Stents have similar use for heart patients.

In Washington, the Food and Drug Administration had a committeeof experts consider the carotid stent for use in the United States.In April, the committee advised the F.D.A. to approve the system,with some conditions. The system would be meant for high-riskpatients. These are people whose age or health makes the traditionaloperation too dangerous.

The vote was close. Six of the experts supported the approval.Five opposed it. The agency will now consider a final decision.

To use the stent, doctors make a small cut between the stomachand the top of the leg. They place a small tube called a catheterinto the carotid artery. Then they pass the catheter up to the neck.At the end of the catheter is the stent.

The doctors expand the stent to enlarge and clean the carotidartery. Another device protects the brain from any plaque materialloosened by the cleaning process. The doctors then remove thecatheter. But the stent remains in place to hold the artery open.

Doctor Jay Yadav (YA-dav) of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio led astudy to compare the stent to the traditional operation. A divisionof the Cordis Corporation that makes the system paid for the study.Three-hundred-ten people were treated. About half of them had thetraditional operation. The others received stents.

Doctor Yadav said that after one year, the stent patients did aswell, and in many ways better, than those who had the operation.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by JerilynWatson.