Background The Endeavor TM stent (Medtronic Corp., USA) represents a second-generation drug-eluting stent (DES). The combination of a nickel–chromium–cobalt alloy, a phosphorylcholine polymer and zotarolimus makes this stent somewhat unique….
Background Women with coronary artery disease are at higher risk for adverse outcomes than men after coronary intervention. The SPIRIT IV clinical trial, a prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial, compared…
Background There is currently a paucity of data regarding the clinical outcome of the everolimus-eluting stent (EES) in unselected patients with the whole spectrum of obstructive coronary artery disease as…
Background Patients with lesions located in small vessels are at increased risk of adverse outcomes after PCI. Improved safety and efficacy have been previously demonstrated with XIENCE V stents in…
Background Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of saphenous vein grafts (SVG) is associated with poor outcomes. Improvement in pharmacology and technologies might translate to better outcomes after SVG PCI. However, there…
Background Higher rates of adverse cardiac events have been observed in patients with small vessel disease. In a pooled analysis of the SPIRIT III and IV trials, we compared an…
Background New stent technologies and expanded stent matrices may impact healthcare costs for payers and providers. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of TAXUS Liberté Long drug-eluting stents (DES) vs. TAXUS Express…
Background Advanced stent platform iterations should be able to demonstrate safety and efficacy advantages over earlier-generation devices while being cost-effective. We developed an economic model to evaluate cost-effectiveness of stent…
Objective Drug-eluting stents (DES) are known to impact vascular functions. The impact of the polymers and the drugs used in DES on the pathways regulating vascular reactivity is not well…
Background An important limitation of polymer-coated vascular stents, especially drug eluting, is slow endothelialization, which has been suggested as a potential cause of late stent thrombosis. Active capture of endothelial…
