The current technical step forwards in metallic stents (MS), bare metal stents (BMS) and drug-eluting stents (DES) respectively led interventional cardiologists to a rude therapeutic attitude, that even the most complex coronary lesions are being treated with angioplasty plus stents (TCA). About a third of all the patients with multivessel disease (MVD) in Europe are being treated with TCA inst...

OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy and safety of percutaneous coronary intervention using second-generation drug-eluting stents with those of coronary artery bypass grafting among patients with multivessel disease and/or unprotected left main coronary artery disease in terms of mortality, myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization, and angina. BACKGROUND Although coronary artery disease ...

In a 27 months period from Aug. 2010 to October 2012, 189 patients (aged 35-79, mean 56.6 years, 169 males) with 318 stents subsequently underwent ICA after CTA on the same day in 182 (96.3%) patients, on the second day in 6 (3.2%), and on the 4th day in one patient (0.5%). The interval time between the last stents implantation and CTA was 3.6 to 61.6 (mean 11.2) months. Significant ISR was def...

In this paper we provide the first model of drug elution from polymer-free arterial drug-eluting stents. The generalised model is capable of predicting drug release from a number of polymer-free systems including those that exhibit nanoporous, nanotubular and smooth surfaces. We derive analytical solutions which allow us to easily determine the important parameters that control drug release. Dr...

Despite the favorable impact of drug eluting stents on stent restenosis, their long-term reliability is considered worrisome by some because of stent thrombosis. Often attributed to adverse reactions to the stent platform, both the drugs and polymer characteristics have been further advanced with current technologies. The present review discussed current drug eluting stents and new developments.

Coronary drug-eluting stents are commonplace in clinical practice with acceptable safety and efficacy. Preclinical evaluation of novel drug-eluting stent technologies has great importance for understanding safety and possibly efficacy of these technologies, and well-defined preclinical testing methods clearly benefit multiple communities within the developmental, testing, and clinical evaluatio...

We present a simple model of experimental setup for in vitro study of drug release from drug eluting stents and drug propagation in artificial tissue samples representing blood vessels. The model is further reduced using the assumption on vastly different characteristic diffusion times in the stent coating and in the artificial tissue. The model is used to derive a relationship between the time...

Drug-eluting stents are considered a breakthrough in the treatment of coronary artery disease owing to their ability to reduce rates of restenosis and the subsequent need for target lesion revascularization. The literature has limited reports of long-term results of drug-eluting stent implantation with respect to vascular integrity and coronary endothelial function. Thus, we review the currentl...

Coronary stent thrombosis is a rare event leading to ST segment elevation myocardial infarction and death. Although early thrombosis of drug-eluting and bare metal stents is relatively frequent, simultaneous thrombosis of bare metal coronary stents has rarely been reported. Here, we present a case of simultaneous subacute thrombosis of two bare metal stents in different coronary arteries ea...