Articles on the various questions, problems, and controversies currently plaguing drug-eluting stents: deployment techniques, stent qualities, antiplatelet therapies, and etiologies of post-DES thrombosis and restenosis.
In the Injury Theory, it's damage to the arterial endothelium, followed by platelet activation, then smooth muscle cell migration to injury, then macrophages, with resulting "foam cells." Engorged foam cells burst, starting the injury cycle all over again
In much of the world (but not in the U.S.,) drug-coated stents are avoided by cardiologists because of their high cost. To compensate for the inability to use these stents, many cardiologists outside of the U.S. have taken to administering sirolimus (also
Electron Beam CT, or EBCT scans (formerly called ultrafast CT scans) are useful in detecting the presence of calcium deposits in the lining of the coronary arteries. The presence of calcium deposits is a strong indicator that coronary artery disease is al
Raymond Gibbons, MD (Mayo Clinic, Pres/American Heart Association), said COURAGE trial findings suggest that "hundreds of thousands of Americans with stable angina who received coronary stents did not need them."
Evaluation of Cypher Sirolimus Eluting Stent in Patients Undergoing Elective Revascularization of Nonacute Total Coronary Occlusions (TCO). Cordis Corp. Columbia Presbyterian, NYC. 2006-2011. (Not currently recruiting)
An investigational drug-eluting stent called Xience, coated with everolimus, led to significantly less late lumen loss after nine months than did the Taxus (paclitaxel-eluting) stent, said researchers here today. March 2007