Endothelial recovery: the next target in restenosis prevention.

By most accounts, the field of interventional cardiology appears to have achieved one of its most elusive milestones, the virtual eradication of restenosis. In the present issue of Circulation, however, Hedman and colleagues1 report the results of a pilot study of gene therapy with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for restenosis prevention. Are these authors attempting to develop a treatment for a disease that no longer exists? Or is it possible that the mounting exuberance anticipating the release of drug-eluting stents is ignoring a major liability of these otherwise promising therapies?