Abstract
The introduction of drug-eluting stents has led to a marked reduction of restenosis, which is a major limitation of percutaneous coronary intervention for coronary artery disease. The next-generation Xience V® (Abbott Vascular, CA, USA) everolimus-eluting stent was designed to address the limitations of first-generation drug-eluting stents. The cobalt–chromium stent platform with an open-cell design offers excellent deliverability. Moreover, the combination of a thin fluoropolymer eluting the antirestenotic drug everolimus provides both an effective suppression of neointimal tissue and rapid re-endothelialization above and between stent struts in preclinical studies. Large randomized clinical trials comparing the everolimus-eluting stent with the Taxus Express® and Liberté® (Boston Scientific, MA, USA) paclitaxel-eluting stents have shown reduced rates of repeat revascularization, myocardial infarction and stent thrombosis at 1-year follow-up with the everolimus-eluting stent. However, we will have to await long-term (5-year) data from these randomized clinical trials with the everolimus-eluting stent to determine whether the observed benefit is robust. Furthermore, data are currently limited the clinical performance of the everolimus-eluting stent relative to drug-eluting stents other than the Taxus Express and Liberté paclitaxel-eluting stents, although a large number of trials are now being conducted to address these questions. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of (pre)clinical studies with the everolimus-eluting stent.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
José PS Henriques received an unrestricted research grant from Abbott Vascular. Jan J Piek is member of the Medical Advisory Board of Abbott Vascular. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.