Drug-Eluting Stents: Advanced Applications for the Management of Coronary Disease

The cure for restenosis has been the Holy Grail of interventional cardiology since the advent of coronary angioplasty in the late 1970s. The development of stents improved the durability of angioplasty, but in-stent restenosis was a major problem for patients and the physicians. To deliver drugs locally on stents that prevent restenosis is a revolutionary advance. Percutaneous revascularization technology has leaped forward, dramatically altering clinical practices, with what may be the single most important advance in the history of cardiology. There are new delivery platforms and new drugs currently being tested. Despite the continuing advancement, there was a need to collate in a single text, information on drug eluting stents for coronary disease. Chris White and colleagues have put together a logically organized text that progresses from theory to practice, and addresses pharmacologic, technical and strategic issues as they relate to the placement of coronary drug-eluting stents.