Paclitaxel Stents More Effective
Researchers
say stents that release the medication paclitaxel reduce the risk of an
artery re-narrowing nine months following angioplasty.
Drug-eluting
stents have revolutionized the treatment of atherosclerotic coronary artery
disease, but enrollment in the trials was restricted to relatively simple
stenoses, although more than 55 percent of lesions currently treated with
the bioactive devices may fall outside that range.
Lead author
Dr. Gregg Stone of Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues investigated
the safety and efficacy of a paclitaxel-eluting stent in a patient population
with more complex coronary lesions than previously studied.
"Compared with
bare metal stents, implantation of paclitaxel-eluting stents reduced the
9-month rate of target lesion revascularization from 15.7 percent to 8.6
percent and target vessel revascularization from 17.3 percent to 12.1 percent,"
the authors wrote.
"Among patients
receiving the paclitaxel-eluting stent compared with a bare metal stent,
the rate of in-stent restenosis was reduced with from 31.9 percent to 13.7
percent and analysis segment angiographic restenosis was reduced from 33.9
percent to 18.9 percent," they said.
The study appears
in the Sept. 14 issue of JAMA.
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Copyright 2005 by United
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