The AHA and the ACC have released updated 2011 guidelines for PCI and CABG. The guidelines are available online on the JACC website (here and here) and on the Circulation website. The new guidelines include for the first time a strong recommendation that hospitals adopt a “heart team” approach in choosing a treatment strategy for patients with coronary…

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Abbott announced on Tuesday that it had received FDA approval for its Xience Prime everolimus-eluting stent. The cobalt chromium stent is designed to be delivered more easily to complex lesions and will be available in long lengths up to 38 mm. Approval of Xience Prime was based on the SPIRIT Prime clinical trial, an open-label registry…

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 Why buy the most expensive stent when the cheaper one works just as well? Two recent studies suggest that a more selective use of stents has merits. In an analysis of pooled data from 4 trials (SPIRIT II-IV and COMPARE) comparing the more-expensive everolimus-eluting stent (EES) with the less-expensive paclitaxel eluting stent (PES), Stone and colleagues identified a…

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Although drug-eluting stents (DES) have largely supplanted bare metal stents (BMS) in clinical practice, a new study published in Circulation suggests that using these devices in all patients may represent an inefficient use of healthcare resources. Lakshmi Venkitachalam and colleagues analyzed data from 10,144 PCI patients enrolled in the Evaluation of Drug Eluting Stents and…

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In January 2011, we blogged about ABSORB, a  bioresorbable stent, when it received CE approval for use in Europe. Drug-eluting stents (DES) are composed of a metal scaffold that is coated with a polymer containing an antiproliferative agent , which is released gradually over the weeks to months after the stent is inserted.  The durable polymer residue…

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Boston Scientific said on Monday that it had received FDA approval for a third-generation drug-eluting stent, the ION Paclitaxel-Eluting Platinum Chromium Coronary Stent System. The “unique platinum chromium (PtCr) alloy” is specifically designed for use in the coronary arteries. The FDA announced that the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee would meet on May 19…

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What to make of new findings that DES are just as good as BMS for treating lesions in large coronary arteries? David Hillis and Rick Lange provide a brief tour of the relevant issues. Getting a handle on the study… Previous data suggested that the use of DES in large native coronary arteries confers no…

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Finding it hard to keep up with all of the new DES research? Interventional Cardiology Co-Moderator Rick Lange offers this brief tutorial on the “top six things every cardiologist should know about DES.” Would you add anything to Rick’s list? Tell us your thoughts here.

(“All we want are the facts, ma’am.” –Joe Friday, Dragnet) Having trouble keeping up with DES and the recent stent studies? Want a brief tutorial? To learn the top six things every cardiologist should know about DES, read on… 1. What they do. DES are superior to both bare-metal stents and angioplasty in reducing the…

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Two large trials presented at TCT continue to demonstrate the long-term superiority of the everolimus-eluting stent (EES) over the paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES). Gregg Stone presented two-year outcomes from more than 3500 patients randomized in the SPIRIT IV trial to either the Xience V or the Taxus stents. At two years, the rate of target lesion failure —…

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