First clinical experience with the premounted balloon-expandable serpentine stent: Acute angiographic and intermediate-term clinical results

The beStent-Artist coronary stent is a newly developed, stainless steel cor onary stent with a serpentine tubular design and terminal stent markers, pr emounted on a semicompliant balloon, During this pilot evaluation we aimed to test the acute clinical and angiographic results, short-term (30 days) a nd 6-month clinical results, A total of 57 stents were used to treat 43 les ions in 40 patients, Deployment strategy included predilatation, stent depl oyment, balloon repositioning to match the distal end of the balloon to the distal stent marker, and subsequent 12-14 atm postdilatation. There were t wo cases of stent dislodgment, but no procedural complications, In four cas es, stent recrossing with another balloon was necessary. In two of these ca ses, distal dissections were observed and treated with another stent. The m inimal lumen diameter (MLD) increased from 0.84 +/- 0.52 mm at baseline to 2.7 +/- 0.62 mm at the end of the procedure (a corresponding decrease in di ameter stenosis from 78.6 > 16.4 to 18.2 +/- 10.7%). The acute gain was 1.8 9 +/- 0.61mm, No adverse events occurred by 30 days. During six months, 7/4 0 (18.5%) of patients required target vessel revascularization due to in-st ent restenosis, in summary, the premounted beStent-Artist can be delivered and deployed with favorable immediate results and high success rate with fa vorable long-term recurrent event rates. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss,Inc.