Early experience with the Bard XT stent

The Bard XT stent is a new generation balloon expandable intracoronary sten t, It has several unique design advantages, Between October 1996 and Novemb er 1997, 127 Bard XT stents of various length were deployed in 93 patients with 109 lesions. According to the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) classifications 7 lesions were type A, 38 were type B1, 43 were type B2 and 21 were type C [Ellis et al.: Circulatio n 82:1193-1202, 1990]. Stent delivery was successful in 98% of attempts. An giographic success was achieved in 98% of 109 lesions, Procedural success w as achieved in 94% of 93 patients, Minimal luminal diameter (MLD) increased from 0.91 +/- 0.34 mm to 3.03 +/- 0.44 mm and percentage diameter stenosis reduced from 69.1 +/- 11.07 to 9.96 +/- 6.81. Complications occurred in fo ur patients. One patient had intracranial hemorrhage, one patient had subac ute thrombosis and two patients died postprocedure. Patients were followed for a period of 1 to 14 months (average 7 +/- 4 months) for major cardiac e vents and clinical restenosis, The Bard XT stent is a user-friendly device which provided excellent angiographic results and short-term clinical outco me in selected cases, Further study is required to evaluate effects on rest enosis. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Diagn. 45:462-470, 1998. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, I nc.