Stent News and Research

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A stent is a small mesh tube that’s used to treat narrowed or weakened arteries in the body.

You may have a stent placed in an artery as part of a procedure called angioplasty (AN-jee-oh-plas-tee). Angioplasty can restore blood flow through narrowed or blocked arteries. Stents help prevent arteries from becoming narrowed or blocked again in the months or years after treatment with angioplasty. You may also have a stent placed in a weakened artery to improve blood flow and to help prevent the artery from bursting.

Stents are usually made of metal mesh, but sometimes they’re made of fabric. Fabric stents, also called stent grafts, are used in larger arteries. Some stents are coated with medicines that are slowly and continuously released into the artery. These medicines help prevent the artery from becoming blocked again.

Computational fluid dynamics modeling confirms better blood flow with new stent graft design

Vascular surgeon Pat Kelly of Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, knew his patients were doing better with the stent graft he designed, but he wanted a better understanding of the mechanics before testing the device more widely in a clinical trial. For that, he reached out to South Dakota State University.

27 Aug 2015

Loyola University Medical Center first in Illinois to offer new, noninvasive test for heart disease

Loyola University Medical Center is the first and only hospital in Illinois to offer a new, noninvasive technology to test for coronary artery disease.

21 Aug 2015

Boston Scientific receives FDA approval for Innova Vascular Self-Expanding Stent System

Boston Scientific Corporation has received Food and Drug Administration approval for the Innova Vascular Self-Expanding Stent System, an advanced treatment option for patients with narrowing or blockages in the superficial femoral artery (SFA) or proximal popliteal artery (PPA).

20 Aug 2015

Open-heart bypass surgery is not an arduous operation, says Loyola surgeon

Less than two months before his daughter Lauren's wedding, Tom Koegler underwent a quadruple bypass heart surgery at Loyola University Medical Center.

19 Aug 2015

ESC Congress to highlight results from global trials in six press conferences

Members of the press will be the first to hear the highly anticipated results from global trials in six press conferences devoted to hot lines research.

13 Aug 2015

Mount Sinai launches clinical trial to test effectiveness of ticagrelor drug in treating coronary stent patients

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has launched an international clinical trial called TWILIGHT to test the safety and effectiveness of treating coronary stent patients with the anti-clotting medication ticagrelor alone, instead of combining it with aspirin, which is the current standard of care. Researchers will analyze the potential benefits of administering ticagrelor to reduce clotting while at the same time reducing the risk of bleeding associated with the use of both medications.

12 Aug 2015

Biosensors’ Q1 FY16 revenue reduces US$67.0M compared to US$80.2M in Q1 FY15

Biosensors International Group, Ltd., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative medical devices, today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended 30 June 2015 ("Q1 FY16").

3 Aug 2015

Innovative new devices that facilitate IA treatment improve outcomes, decrease mortality rates

In the last decade, Intra-Arterial (IA) stroke therapy (a technique in which thrombolytic agents and devices are passed through the arteries directly to the clot site) has gained notable momentum as an effective and safe treatment option for patients.

28 Jul 2015

Less invasive endovascular aortic repair benefits most patients, provides quick recovery

Each year, nearly 40,000 Americans undergo elective surgery to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm with the goal of preventing a life-threatening rupture of this potentially dangerous cardiovascular condition.

24 Jul 2015

New review article analyzes pros and cons of different treatment approaches to gallbladder disease

More than 25 million Americans have gallstones, and each year about 1 million new cases are diagnosed. Each year about 1.8 million people develop abdominal pain as a result of gallstones and go see a doctor about it. About 40 percent of these, more than 725,000 people a year, ultimately have surgery to resolve the problem.

23 Jul 2015

Nebraska researchers receive $3.5 million NIH grant to study stents for peripheral artery disease

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have received a five-year, $3.5 million grant funded by the National Institutes of Health to find out why stents don't work well for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD).

23 Jul 2015

Boston Scientific commences new study to evaluate fully resorbable drug-eluting scaffold system

Boston Scientific has initiated a study of the company's first fully resorbable drug-eluting scaffold system. The Fully Absorbable Scaffold Feasibility Study (FAST) is a prospective, single arm study designed to assess the safety and performance of this next generation scaffold for the treatment of atherosclerotic coronary lesions.

21 Jul 2015

Patients who receive intracranial stents at increased risk of experiencing another stroke

The risk of experiencing another stroke is higher if patients, after dilation of their blood vessels in the brain, receive not only clot-inhibiting drugs, but also have stents inserted. The recently published results of the VISSIT study confirm this conclusion of a rapid report by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) of October 2014.

7 Jul 2015

New AHA/ASA guidelines recommend stent retrievers to treat strokes in selected patients

New devices called stent retrievers are enabling physicians to benefit selected patients who suffer strokes caused by blood clots. The devices effectively stop strokes in their tracks.

3 Jul 2015

UCLA cardiologists use less invasive approach to replace heart valve

Last summer, after a long career as a successful entrepreneur and a brief retirement, Richard Whitaker was helping to start another new company. Unfortunately, a serious health concern caused a couple of interruptions in his work on the new venture. One of Whitaker's heart valves wasn't working properly, which caused congestive heart failure and led to two hospitalizations within several months.

2 Jul 2015

New stroke treatment guidelines recommend use of stent retrievers as first-line treatment for eligible patients

Today, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association published new stroke treatment guidelines that recommend the use of stent retriever technology – such as Medtronic plc’s SolitaireTM stent retriever device – in conjunction with the current standard of care, IV-tPA, as a first-line treatment for eligible patients.

30 Jun 2015

Re-Inflating balloon after carotid stenting appears to double risk of stroke and death

Patients with severe blockages typically undergo surgery to scrape off the fatty deposits from the walls of the vessel, the preferred approach that carries notably lower stroke risk but is not recommended for people too sick to withstand traditional surgery...

4 Jun 2015

New Johns Hopkins study shows re-inflating balloon after carotid stenting fuels stroke risk

After reviewing outcomes from thousands of cases, researchers at Johns Hopkins report that patients with blocked neck arteries who undergo carotid stenting to prop open the narrowed blood vessels fare decidedly worse if their surgeons re-inflate a tiny balloon in the vessel after the mesh stent is in place.

3 Jun 2015

Vascular surgeries provide relief from two debilitating conditions

When Carol Werkman first saw Loyola University Medical Center vascular surgeon Bernadette Aulivola, MD, she was suffering from two debilitating conditions: Every time she ate, Mrs. Werkman felt terrible abdominal pain. And whenever she walked more than a few hundred feet, her legs would begin to hurt.

1 Jun 2015

New multi-tasking stent could reduce risks associated with coronary artery procedure

Every year, an estimated half-million Americans undergo surgery to have a stent prop open a coronary artery narrowed by plaque. But sometimes the mesh tubes get clogged. Scientists report in the journal ACS Nano a new kind of multi-tasking stent that could minimize the risks associated with the procedure.

28 May 2015