Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The pathogenesis of CAD relates to the presence of atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries, which are today most frequently treated by percutaneous coronary intervention. Initially, plain old balloon angioplasty demonstrated feasibility of dilating atherosclerotic coronary lesions; however, the high ra...

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...

Coronary stents reduce the rates of abrupt closure, emergency coronary artery bypass graft surgery and restenosis, but do not prevent myocardial infarction or death at six months. The financial burden of increased stent use and the difficulty in managing in-stent restenosis have provided the impetus to develop provisional stenting strategies. Patients at low risk for restenosis after balloon an...

Cardiovascular disease is the dominant cause of mortality in developed countries, with coronary artery disease (CAD) a predominant contributor. The development of stents to treat CAD was a significant innovation, facilitating effective percutaneous coronary revascularization. Coronary stents have evolved from bare metal compositions, to incorporate advances in pharmacological therapy in what ar...

as a means for catheter–based coronary revascularization has rapidly changed the face of interventional cardiology. At many leading centers, 60-70% of all percutaneous coronary interventions now utilize stenting. The relatively rapid acceptance and increasingly widespread use of stents has been driven by an improvement in the predictability of intervention with lessened acute and subacute closu...

Coronary stent fractures have been suggested as a potential new mechanism of restenosis. The mechanical properties of stents were designed not only to prevent vessel recoil, but also to resist the mechanical stress of vessel movement over millions of cardiac cycles. We present a case in which mechanical stress may have contributed to the fracture of a stent implanted in a saphenous vein graft (...

Direct revascularization of an ischaemic vascular bed represents an attractive treatment option for patients with coronary artery disease. Coronary artery bypass surgery has been demonstrated to provide both symptomatic improvement and, in certain circumstances, to improve prognosis, while catheter-based techniques offer substantial improvement in symptomatology, with reduced morbidity compared...

The introduction of coronary stents into clinical practice has reduced repeated patient visits compared with balloon angioplasty alone. Also, drug-eluting substantially the restenosis incidence. Therefore, later complications related to implantation a stent coated cytostatic-containing polymer became more relevant. mechanism late is multifactorial. It mainly due body's response prolonged indwel...

Since the development of coronary angioplasty in the late 1970s, there have been a series of technical advancements that have improved the outcome of the procedure. Clearly, the biggest advance was to move from balloon angioplasty to intracoronary stenting and now to drug-eluting stents (DES).1,2 These advances have been shown to reduce in-hospital events and to dramatically lower the incidence...

BACKGROUND Although metallic stents are effective in preventing acute occlusion and reducing late restenosis after coronary angioplasty, many concerns still remain. Compared with metallic stents, poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) stents are biodegradable and can deliver drugs locally. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of the PLLA stent. METHODS AND RESULTS Fi...