Background and study aims: Biliary stent dysfunction is mainly caused by biliary sludge that forms as a result of bacterial adherence and subsequent biofilm formation on the inner surface of the stent. Silver ions arewell known to have excellent antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microorganisms. In this study, we designed and constructed silver-coated plastic stent (PS) and investig...

Background: Anatomically myocardial bridging (MB) consists of either superficial myocardial fibers that traverse over the LAD or deep fibers that encircle the coronary artery. In this study, we present a patient with myocardial bridging, who was primarily diagnosed with coronary artery disease which did not properly respond to full-dose medical treatment but benefited from coronary artery bypas...

PURPOSE Patients with aneurysmal disease involving both the descending thoracic and abdominal aorta have historically required simultaneous or sequential conventional operations, but the morbidity rate is high with either approach in these patients, who often exhibit coexisting cardiopulmonary disease. Transluminally placed endovascular grafts have recently been developed for repair of aortic a...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and feasibility of a novel stent-graft for thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) in a canine model, 9 adult hybrid dogs were used for the experiment. METHODS All animals were implanted with a novel thoracic aortic stent-graft via femoral artery. Blood sample was collected at pre-operation and 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks after implantation for hematological e...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the Gore Excluder aortic stent graft (WL Gore & Associates, Inc., Flagstaff, AZ) using the C3 Delivery System after physician modification of fenestration for the urgent treatment of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm showing hostile neck anatomy. CASE SUMMARY Three urgent cases of abdominal aortic aneurysm with...

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) extension far into the inferior vena cava (IVC) or the right atrium may complicate or preclude orthotopic liver transplantation depending on the space available for placement of a hemostatic clamp in the suprahepatic IVC. Until 2004, most TIPS were performed with bare metal stents, which integrate into the vessel wall, making percutaneous or ...

The widespread adoption of balloon expandable coronary stents in the 1990s brought about a significant improvement in the results of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). There was not only a reduction in the number of patients requiring emergency coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) but also a reduction in the occurrence of clinically significant restenosis within the treated artery and thu...

AIMS To compare the tissue coverage of a hydrophilic polymer-coated zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZES) vs. a fluoropolymer-coated everolimus-eluting stent (EES) at 13 months, using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in an 'all-comers' population of patients, in order to clarify the mechanism of eventual differences in the biocompatibility and thrombogenicity of the devices. METHODS AND RESULTS P...