Over seven months of follow-up, the clinical and angiographic outcomes were better in patients who received a stent than in those who received standard coronary angioplasty. However, this benefit was achieved at the cost of a significantly higher risk of vascular complications at the access site and a longer hospital stay.

No abstract

Treatment of coronary in-stent restenosis with paclitaxel-coated balloon catheters significantly reduced the incidence of restenosis. These data suggest that the inhibition of restenosis by local drug delivery may not require stent implantation and sustained drug release at the site of injury. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00106587 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).

Background-Noninvasive coronary angiography with the use of multislice computed tomography (CT) scanners is feasible with high sensitivity and negative predictive value; however, the radiation exposure associated with this technique is rather high. We evaluated coronary angiography using whole-heart 320-row CT, which avoids exposure-intensive overscanning and overranging. Methods and Results-A total of 30 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease referred for clinically indicated conventional coronary angiography (CCA) were included in this prospective intention-to-diagnose study. CT was performed with the use of up to 320 simultaneous detector rows before same-day CCA, which, together with quantitative analysis, served as the reference standard.