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.

New synthetic version of the drug heparin

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have patented a synthetic version of the drug heparin, called Recomparin, that is less complex chemically and should be easier to produce than previous forms.

24 Sep 2007

Vibrating catheters break through clogged arteries

A new vibrating catheter breaks through clogged arteries like a jackhammer, obliterating total blockages in patients with dangerous chronic total occlusions (CTOs).

13 Sep 2007

New minimally-invasive coated vascular stent graft in use at Methodist DeBakey Heart Center

Surgeons at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston were among the first in the U.S. to implant a new, less-invasive stent graft designed to reduce the risk of blood clots in patients treated for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which affects as many as 12 million Americans over the age of 50.

11 Sep 2007

John Cheatham receives prestigious award for work on congenital heart disease

The Pediatric Interventional Cardiac Symposium (PICS) & Adult Interventional Cardiac Symposium (AICS) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2007 was recently presented to John P. Cheatham, MD, Co-Director of The Heart Center at Columbus Children's Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics & Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

11 Sep 2007

Drug eluting stents should be used with caution in acute myocardial infarction

Drug-eluting stents are extremely effective devices to prevent restenosis following angioplasty. Yet, since last year, there is some debate and persistent uncertainty regarding the long term safety of these devices. Specifically, there is concern that some of these stents may occlude abruptly more than 1 year after placement, due to "late stent thrombosis".

3 Sep 2007

OPTIMIST: The Outcome of PCI for stent-ThrombosIs MultIcentre STudy

Stent thrombosis is a recognized complication occurring in 1-2% of patients with coronary artery disease treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stent implantation. Its occurrence is expected to increase with the number of stent implantation procedures done worldwide. Moreover, stent thrombosis is a hot topic in the cardiology community.

3 Sep 2007

The goals of platelet inhibition in acute coronary syndromes

Platelet activation and aggregation play important roles in the pathogenesis of cardiac ischemic events after either spontaneous plaque disruption in acute coronary syndromes or mechanical disruption of coronary artery plaques caused by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), which could be considered an artificially induced acute coronary syndrome.

3 Sep 2007

Left main stem angioplasty

The left main coronary artery supplies at least two thirds of the hearts blood supply. When it becomes narrowed it causes large areas of the heart to malfunction with subsequent severe anginal chest pain and breathlessness. Occlusion of the left main coronary is usually fatal within a matter of seconds.

3 Sep 2007

Immediate emergency angioplasty can save the lives of those experiencing MI

We have demonstrated that patients who have an acute myocardial infarction and are admitted to a hospital which has no possibility to perform direct angioplasty, benefit from being transferred immediately after having received thrombolytics to a hospital where angioplasty (percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI, often including stent implantation) can be immediately performed.

3 Sep 2007

DES: friend or foe?

The current FDA approved stents (CYPHER and TAXUS) have been associated with late stent thrombosis (LST) (>30days following implantation) however, the mechanisms predictive of LST are poorly understood. Pathologic studies are one of the best methods for detailed analysis of morphologic changes that occur after placement of Drug Eluting Stents to determine the causes of LST.

3 Sep 2007

Long term follow up of additional Swedish registry data does not indicate an increased

Four years of follow up including additional patients in the Swedish Coronary angiography and angioplasty registry (SCAAR) does no longer indicate any increased mortality in patients treated with drug eluting stents compared to patients treated with bare metal stents.

2 Sep 2007

Australian researchers discover a 'novel molecular dictator with a conscience'

University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers have uncovered an important naturally occurring mechanism in the body where "bad" cells that cause blockages in our blood vessels are kept under strict growth control, while "good" cells that keep our blood vessels free of clots and growths are left unaffected.

27 Aug 2007

Call for improved treatments of stroke

A coalition of physicians representing a wide range of medical specialties has issued a call to action to improve the treatment of stroke.

22 Aug 2007

PET MPI provides a more accurate "picture" of coronary obstruction

Physicians need to know how badly heart vessels are blocked before they can decide how to treat patients at risk of having a heart attack.

17 Aug 2007

Discussion on the explosive growth and the potential risks of drug-eluting stents

The Summer 2007 issue of The American Heart Hospital Journal explores one of the pivotal issues in cardiology, the drug-eluting stent (DES).

9 Aug 2007

Directed nanoparticles deliver gene therapy

After binding DNA segments to tiny iron-containing spheres called nanoparticles, researchers have used magnetic fields to direct the nanoparticles into arterial muscle cells, where the DNA could have a therapeutic effect.

31 Jul 2007

New hope for aortic dissection survivors

Each year, 10,000 Americans suffer a sudden tear in the lining of their body's largest blood vessel, the aorta.

26 Jul 2007

Discovery of novel 'molecular dictator with a conscience'

23 Jul 2007

Genetically engineered herpes simplex virus keeps arteries free-flowing

A genetically engineered herpes simplex virus, primarily known for causing cold sores, may help keep arteries "free-flowing" in the weeks following angioplasty or stent placement for patients, according to research published early in the online edition of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).

11 Jul 2007

Swift system for heart attack care improves treatment

Heart attack patients received lifesaving care up to an hour sooner after an Indiana hospital implemented a novel protocol to rapidly activate the cardiac catheterization lab, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

16 Jun 2007