Drug-coated stent appears promising

Physicians at Yale and other medical centers have begun testing a new stent coated with a drug to help prevent scar tissue from forming in blocked blood vessels that have been reopened through angioplasty. Reclogging of the vessel by scar tissue occurs following about 20 percent of the 500,000 procedures performed in this country each year. “The initial data is just amazing,” Michael W. Cleman, M.D., professor of medicine (cardiology), told The Hartford Courant in April. “If this tends to work out, I would anticipate that we’d be looking at a whole new era of stenting.” The clinical trial looks at the effectiveness of stents that have been coated with Sirolimus, a drug already being used to help prevent kidney transplant rejection. So far, the medication appears to keep scar tissue from forming around the implanted stent and to reduce the frequency with which vessels become blocked again.