Cardiology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Cardiology, including details on fitness, heart disease, medications.

Intravascular ultrasound in the drug-eluting stent era.

Mintz GS, Weissman NJ

Cardiovascular Research Foundation, New York, New York, USA. gsm18439@aol.com

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has become an indispensable part of all drug-eluting stent (DES) studies; findings must be put into context with the IVUS findings in bare metal stents. Unfortunately, there is not yet a complete picture of either the Cypher (Cordis, Miami, Florida) or the Taxus (Boston Scientific, Maple Grove, Minnesota) stent (the two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved devices). Intimal hyperplasia volume in DES is reduced to <15% of stent volume, but stent underexpansion continues to be a consistent finding in DES failures (restenosis and thrombosis). The utility of IVUS to assure adequate stent expansion may be more important whenever there are clinical risk factors for DES failure.

Published 31 July 2006 in J Am Coll Cardiol, 48(3): 421-9.
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