Much more useful would be a means of preventing the restenosis in the first place. Data presented last week at the ACC meeting only increased the level of enthusiasm for the most promising method of preventing restenosis within stents drug-eluting stents. Drug-eluting stents are coated with medications that inhibit the tissue growth that causes restenosis. Many drugs can inhibit the growth of cells. While many of them would be considered too risky to administer throughout the entire body, the idea of delivering a tiny amount of the drug directly to the tissue that needs to be inhibited is a very attractive one.
Early results suggest that such stents can nearly eliminate the problem of restenosis.
If these early results are verified in ongoing trials, drug-eluting stents may revolutionize interventional cardiology. Stenting will suddenly become a more viable option for many patients now being referred for bypass surgery, for instance. Drug-eluting stents are already a reality. The technology has all but been solved, and what remains is for the technology to be refined, and to be made inexpensive enough to allow hospitals to purchase the equipment in sufficient quantities. But within a few years, it now finally appears as if diagnosing coronary artery disease will move into the realm of noninvasive cardiology.