ANGIOGRAPHIC FOLLOW-UP AND CLINICAL-EXPERIENCE WITH THE FLEXIBLE TANTALUM CORDIS STENT

The Cordis stent is a flexible, highly radioopaque intracoronary stent engineered from a single Tantalum filament folded into a sinusoidal h elical coil. It is premounted on a semicompliant balloon expandable st ent delivery system. From September 1995-March 1996, 147 Cordis stents were deployed in 105 patients (aged 58 +/- 12 yr, 71% male), Clinical indications for stenting were unstable angina in 59 (55%), stable ang ina in 41 (38%), and acute myocardial infarction in 7 (7%), The target vessel was the right coronary artery in 45%, the left anterior descen ding in 31%, and the circumflex artery in 22%. One stent was deployed in a vein graft, and one stent was deployed in a left internal mammary artery graft. Stent deployment was achieved in all but one patient, A cute in-stent thrombosis occurred in 3 patients (2.9%), Two of these p atients required urgent coronary artery bypass surgery. Subacute stent thrombosis occurred in 2 patients (1.9%). Minimum lumen diameter incr eased from 0.70 +/- 0.41 mm to 3.50 +/- 0.60 mm following stent placem ent. All patients received aspirin, Eighty-one patients (77%) received ticlopidine, and 4 patients (4%) received warfarin therapy. The mean hospital stay was 3.4 +/- 2.3 days. Six-month follow-up angiography wa s performed on 50 out of 55 eligible patients at one of the two instit utions involved in this study. Computer-assisted quantitative coronary angiography defined a restenosis rate of 26%. Repeat revascularizatio n was required in 8 patients (14.5%) at 6-mo follow-up. The Tantalum C ordis intracoronary stent is an effective and safe means of treating c oronary lesions, even in patients with unstable ischemic syndromes, Ac ute and subacute rates of in-stent thrombosis were acceptable, and the long-term angiographic restenosis rates and need for repeat revascula rization were favorable. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.