FRIDAY, Mar. 13 (HealthDay News) -- A trial of a bioabsorbable everolimus-eluting coronary stent system shows that it is clinically safe, restores vasomotion and prevents restenosis, researchers report in the Mar. 14 issue of The Lancet.
Patrick W. Serruys, M.D., of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a study of 30 patients who were treated using the bioabsorbable everolimus-eluting coronary stent system for a single coronary artery lesion and followed-up for two years using a range of imaging methods.
The researchers obtained two-year data on 29 of the patients, which showed that the device was safe, that there were no cardiac deaths and only one myocardial infarction. In response to the drug eluted from the stent, vasomotion was observed both at the stented site and in the adjacent coronary artery, the investigators found. The luminal area was shown to have increased, as a result of plaque reduction without change in vessel size, they noted.
"The absence of a foreign body and the restoration of vasomotion raise the hope of a normal healed vessel that could be without the risk of late stent thrombosis," the authors write. "All these findings need to be confirmed in larger studies, but this or similar devices could become of paramount importance for the restoration of vascular integrity in the treatment of flow-limiting plaque."
The study was sponsored by Abbott Vascular (USA), which manufactures the bioabsorbable everolimus-eluting coronary stent system, and some co-authors are employees or on the advisory board of Abbott.
Abstract
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