Percutaneous coronary revascularization has been a mainstay in the management of coronary artery disease since its introduction in the late 1970s. Bare-metal stents and, more recently, first-generation drug-eluting stents (DES), such as sirolimus-eluting (Cypher) and paclitaxel-eluting stents (Taxus), have further improved results of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by improving early r...

Ann Saudi Med 28(2) March-April 2008 www.kfshrc.edu.sa/annals 114 Drug-eluting stents have attracted considerable attention since their commercial approval more than 5 years ago when they were considered by some as one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of cardiovascular medicine. Different drug-eluting stents, with different drugs, different polymers, and different elution kine...

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...

Drug-eluting stents (DES) reduce coronary restenosis significantly; however, late stent thrombosis (LST) occurs, which requires long-term antiplatelet therapy. Angioscopic grading of neointimal coverage of coronary stent struts was established, and it was revealed that neointimal formation is incomplete and prevalence of LST is higher in DES when compared to bare-metal stents. It was also obser...

Coronary artery disease is characterized by a narrowing (stenosis) of the arteries that supply blood to the tissue of the heart. Continued restriction of blood flow manifests itself as angina and ultimately myocardial infarction (heart attack) for the patient. Heart bypass was once the only treatment for this condition, but over the years percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has become an i...

BACKGROUND Stent implantation for obstructive femoropopliteal artery disease has been associated with poor long-term outcomes. This study evaluated the effectiveness of shape memory alloy recoverable technology (SMART) nitinol self-expanding stents coated with a polymer impregnated with sirolimus (rapamycin) versus uncoated SMART Stents in superficial femoral artery obstructions. METHODS AND ...

OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy and safety of percutaneous coronary intervention using second-generation drug-eluting stents with those of coronary artery bypass grafting among patients with multivessel disease and/or unprotected left main coronary artery disease in terms of mortality, myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization, and angina. BACKGROUND Although coronary artery disease ...

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...

Drug-eluting stents (DESs) have been central focused area of interest interventional cardiology ever since the RAVEL study was presented at the meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in September 2001. Their novelty, along with the promising preliminary results published for that study, aroused many expectations.1 Although these expectations have not been fully met and the rate of resten...

The development of coronary stents represents a major step forward in the treatment of obstructive coronary artery disease since the introduction of percutaneous coronary intervention. The initial enthusiasm for bare metal stents was, however, tempered by a significant incidence of in-stent restenosis, the manifestation of excessive neointima hyperplasia within the stented vessel segment, ultim...