Background: Small side branches, albeit less important than their larger counterparts, have not yet received due attention in the literature. Nor has there ever been a comparison between drug-eluting stents and bare metal stents apropos side branch occlusion. The aim of this study was to compare the patency of small (≥0.5 and ≤1.5 mm in diameter) side branches with respect to bare metal vs. dru...

Percutaneous invasion of coronary arteries began with Andreas Gruentzig, who performed the first human percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Stents, which overcame many of the limitations encountered with PTCA alone, were the next big milestone in the field of interventional cardiology. However, the incidence of restenosis even with stents remained high, at 20–40%. Over time, a...

Background—The optimal duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after implantation of drug-eluting coronary stents remains undetermined. We aimed to test whether 6-month DAPT would be noninferior to 12-month DAPT after implantation of drug-eluting stents. Methods and Results—We randomly assigned 1443 patients undergoing implantation of drug-eluting stents to receive 6-or 12-month DAPT (in a...

BACKGROUND Preclinical evaluation of the vascular response of drug-eluting stents is limited especially in the setting of diabetes mellitus preventing the evaluation of changes in drug-eluting stent design and eluted drugs after clinical use. METHODS AND RESULTS Cultured human aortic endothelial cells were used to assess the differences between sirolimus and its analog, everolimus, in the set...

The publication in January 2001 of the first-in-man results showing zero restenosis after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation produced enormous excitement in the cardiological community.1 The long-awaited tool—a safe, restenosis-proof, easy-to-use stent—had been found. It was not too long thereafter that paclitaxel-eluting stents also demonstrated their capability to decrease restenosis. Today...

BACKGROUND Although significant undersizing often results in incomplete stent apposition or underexpansion, the possible impact of oversized stent implantation on arterial wall injury has not been systematically investigated with drug-eluting stents. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of stent oversizing on acute and long-term outcomes after drug-eluting stents implantation in ...

INTRODUCTION In this study we present our findings from a series of patients who underwent coronary angioplasty and implantation of drug-eluting stents with rapamycin or paclitaxel. METHODS Two hundred and twenty-three consecutive patients with 343 coronary lesions underwent angioplasty with implantation of 220 rapamycin-eluting stents (Cypher) and 297 paclitaxel-eluting stents (Taxus). RES...