Drug-Eluting Stents (DES) have greatly impacted treatment methods for cardiovascular disease over the past ten years. Patients receiving DES treatments have a significantly reduced risk of in-stent restenosis, but other risks, such as particulate matter generation, have caused concern in recent years. Particulate matter can be generated by the manufacturing process or from the breakdown of any ...

Drug-eluting stents have proven long-term safety and effectiveness for the treatment of coronary artery disease especially due to their marked efficacy in reducing restenosis rates. Nevertheless, the rates of late and very late stent thrombosis, especially in first-generation systems, have raised some concerns. Moreover, percutaneous coronary intervention to small vessels (especially <2.5 mm) r...

AIM To investigate the putative modifying effect of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) use on the incidence of stent thrombosis at 3 years in patients randomized to Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent (E-ZES) or Cypher sirolimus-eluting stent (C-SES). METHODS AND RESULTS Of 8709 patients in PROTECT, 4357 were randomized to E-ZES and 4352 to C-SES. Aspirin was to be given indefinitely, and clopid...

The “final” 5-year outcomes of combined trials with the Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent (E-ZES) by Kandzari et al. (1), published in this issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, might be considered a companion to the Kirtane et al. (2) publication in the issue last month of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, which reported on the “final” 5-year follow-up of the ENDEAVOR IV (A Randomize...

Stent implants, specifically those implanted in Superficial Femoral Artery (SFA) in the lower limbs, are prone to high failure rates. The failures can occur due to abnormal behavior of the blood flow, mechanical forces from the arterial wall imposed on the stent, as well as leg movements such as bending, torsion, compression, and elongation that can create dynamic arterial environment imposed o...

Endovascular stent grafts for the treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms have become increasingly utilized and yet their locational stability in moderate chest trauma is unknown. A high speed impact system was developed to study the stability of aortic endovascular stent grafts in vitro. A straight segment of porcine descending aorta with stent graft was constrained in a custom-made transparent...

BACKGROUND The success of stent implantation in the restoration of blood flow through areas of vascular narrowing is limited by restenosis. Several recent studies have suggested that the local geometric environment created by a deployed stent may influence regional blood flow characteristics and alter distributions of wall shear stress (WSS) after implantation, thereby rendering specific areas ...

The importance of platelets and thrombosis in the pathophysiology of acute ischaemic coronary syndromes has been well appreciated. This information has formed the backbone of the guidelines on both sides of the Atlantic that patients with acute as well as chronic coronary artery disease be treated with aspirin as a longterm strategy of care. While the specific dosage schedule may vary, aspirin ...