ABSTRACT
Introduction The introduction of balloon angioplasty to treat coronary atherosclerosis has created a difficult problem, namely restenosis. The interventional cardiology community and pharmaceutical and device industries are sparing no efforts to combat this problem, which continues to be a formidable challenge. Coronary stents have reduced its incidence to 20% to 30%, a reduction of 30% to 40% (1,2). The recent development of drug-eluting stents (DES) has further decreased but not eliminated the problem (3). Efforts to, therefore, overcome the challenge of restenosis-including research into newer mechanisms, targets, experimental and therapeutic agents, and clinical trials-are still actively pursued. This chapter discusses the oral agents tested in this area, trials conducted thus far and their results, its limitations, and future directions for this modality of treatment.
