Ziad A. Ali1,2*, MD, DPhil; Keyvan Karimi Galougahi1,3, MD, PhD; Aloke V. Finn4,5, MD
1. Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy, Division of Cardiology, Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; 2. Cardiovascular Research Foundation, New York, NY, USA; 3. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; 4. CVPath Institute Inc, Gaithersburg, MD, USA; 5. University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Over the better part of two decades, lessons learned from stent failure have led to technical advances that have resulted in current-generation metallic drug-eluting stents (DES) with very low rates of target lesion failure (TLF) and stent thrombosis1. Continued efforts have been directed at achieving iterative improvements in the design of DES to enhance adaptive vascular healing following vascular injury. By promoting early strut coverage with minimal neointimal hyperplasia but a functioning endothelial layer, stent thrombosis may be minimised and, by reducing the inflammatory response to the foreign polymer and metallic struts, TLF may be reduced.