African-Americans face a much higher risk for developing acute blood clots after 30 days of receiving a drug-coated stent. Statistics were studied by researchers on 7,236 patients between mid-2003 and the end of 2008. These patients had drug-eluting stents implanted to prop open narrow arteries.

Researchers found that even after taking into consideration factors like diabetes, hypertension and kidney problems, African-Americans had a three times higher chance to experience thrombosis as compared to non-African-American patients.

Ron Waksman, M. D., the study's lead author and associate director of the Division of Cardiology at Washington Hospital Center and professor of medicine and Cardiology at Georgetown University said, “The bottom line is this is not just because this population is sicker or less compliant, but there is something else there that needs to be explored.”

Waksman also said, “Physicians and patients need to know that African-Americans are at a higher risk of developing stent thrombosis, which is associated with heart attack or death.”

The study also found that the rate of death from all causes after three years was almost 25 percent for African-Americans as compared to 13 percent for patients of other cases.