OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy and safety of currently used drug eluting stents compared with each other and compared with bare metal stents in patients with diabetes. DESIGN Mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SELECTION PubMed, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched for randomised clinical trials, until April 2012, of four durable polymer drug eluting stents (s...

BACKGROUND The use of a drug-eluting balloon for the treatment of de novo coronary artery lesions remains to be evaluated. A previous trial in patients with stable and unstable angina comparing a bare metal stent mounted on a drug-eluting balloon with a sirolimus-eluting stent failed to meet the prespecified non-inferiority criteria versus the sirolimus-eluting stent. The stent struts of a bare...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to study stent thrombosis with the paclitaxel-eluting Taxus stent. BACKGROUND The incidence and timing of stent thrombosis after drug-eluting stent placement compared with bare-metal stent implantation remain unsettled, with consequent uncertainty about risk stratification and long-term recommendations for antiplatelet medications. METHODS This study used a pati...

AIMS The aim of this study was to investigate the physiologic parameters: fractional flow reserve (FFR), hyperaemic trans-stent gradient (HTG), and wall shear stress (WSS) at implantation and at 6-month follow-up in the drug-eluting sirolimus stent and in its bare metal counterpart implanted in pairs within the same patient. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty patients, accepted for percutaneous coron...

A patient presented with exertional chest pain two months prior to admission. Coronary angiography revealed a subocclusive stenosis within the boundaries of the stent. Optical coherence tomography showed remarkable intimal growth inside the stent, which demonstrated a heterogeneous appearance including low-intensity areas. These findings were congruent with the morphology of fibroatheroma in th...

Biliary stents are widely used not only for palliative treatment of malignant biliary obstruction but also for benign biliary diseases. Each plastic stent or self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) has its own advantages, and a proper stent should be selected carefully for individual condition. To compensate and overcome several drawbacks of SEMS, functional self-expandable metal stent (FSEMS) has b...

Endoscopic palliation of concomitant biliary and duodenal malignant obstruction can be challenging because of difficult access to the papilla, which may consequently result in possible failure of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD), either before or after duodenal stent placement, has emerged as an alternative approa...

CONTEXT Although drug-eluting stents reduce restenosis rates relative to bare-metal stents, concerns have been raised that drug-eluting stents may also be associated with an increased risk of stent thrombosis. Our study focused on the effect of stent type on population-based interventional outcomes. OBJECTIVE To compare outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries who underwent nonemergent coronary ste...

BACKGROUND Neointimal hyperplasia plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of in-stent restenosis in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions. Drug-eluting balloons are a promising tool to prevent restenosis after coronary angioplasty. Moreover, an increased knowledge of the pathophysiology of restenosis my help improve therapeutic strategies. METHODS/DESIGN We present the desi...

A significant number of self-expanding metal stents (SEMSs) placed as conservative therapy for malignant biliary obstruction will become occluded [1]. Stent occlusion can be treated endoscopically either by balloon trawling to remove the biliary sludge and debris or by inserting a polyethylene stent or a second stent through the occluded stent [2]. However, these treatments can be given only af...