Paclitaxel stents more effective

NEW YORK, Sep 13, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- 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.