ABSTRACT
The early drug-eluting stent (DES) trials followed narrow enrollment criteria and showed a significant reduction in the restenosis rate compared to bare metal stents (BMS).1-5 However, it is unclear whether DES placement outside of the clinical trials’ criteria and across a broader spectrum of lesion and patient subsets will result in the same single digit restenosis rate. It is important to realize that optimal deployment strategies and techniques used in these early trials, in addition to the immunosuppressive and antiproliferative coatings applied to the surface of coronary stents, contributed to the favorable angiographic and clinical results.
