New approaches in interventional cardiology

Since its inception in 1977,percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has be come the main technique for revascularisation of patients with coronary art ery disease with more than 1 million procedures performed worldwide each ye ar. Ten years later, the introduction of coronary stents has decreased the incidence of acute complications as well as the frequency of restenosis tha t is still a therapeutic dilemma. On the ether hand, stents extended the in dication of PCI to acute coronary syndromes such as unstable angina and acu te myocardial infarction. In this paper we will discuss the more recent the rapeutic advances in the field of interventional cardiology with a special interest to the following points: stents: current indication and the new te chnological innovations; -Antiplatelet agents: ADP receptor inhibitors (tic lopidine and clopidogrel) and IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors; -treatment of r estenosis: we will discuss the pharmacological aspect gene therapy, and the recent data of the most promising therapeutic technique, brachytherapy; -a ngiogenesis: growth factors, gene therapy and laser-based revascularisation .