A novel model of in-stent restenosis: rat aortic stenting.

S irolimus eluting stents are associated with very low restenosis rates when deployed for single de novo native coronary lesions. These and other drug eluting stents are changing the face of interventional cardiology practice. A number of fundamental practical questions arise with the use of these novel stents, including the effects on in-stent restenosis (ISR) of overlapping stents, tandem stents, and deploying drug eluting and bare metal stents in the same vessel, as well as the ongoing issue of higher ISR rates in patients with diabetes. While rabbit iliac and porcine coronary models of ISR are often used for stent evaluation, these models are expensive and subject to a number of well documented limitations. A simple, more cost effective model of ISR would therefore be of major utility. Such a model is described here.