Late thrombosis in drug-eluting coronary stents after discontinuation of antiplatelet therapy.

Although the safety profiles of coronary stents eluting sirolimus or paclitaxel do not seem to differ from those of bare metal stents in the short-to-medium term, concern has arisen about the potential for late stent thromboses related to delayed endothelialisation of the stent struts. We report four cases of angiographically-confirmed stent thrombosis that occurred late after elective implantation of polymer-based paxlitaxel-eluting (343 and 442 days) or sirolimus-eluting (335 and 375 days) stents, and resulted in myocardial infarction. All cases arose soon after antiplatelet therapy was interrupted.

Late thrombosis after gamma-brachytherapy.

Late stent thrombosis (> 30 days after treatment) is a new phenomenon occurring after vascular brachytherapy. We report the analysis of 11 patients with late thrombosis after gamma-irradiation treatment of in-stent restenosis. All patients had in-stent restenosis and angina.

Morphologic and angiographic features of coronary plaque rupture detected by intravascular ultrasound.

Objectives: This study was designed to report the clinical and angiographic correlates of plaque rupture detected by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).

Background: Acute coronary syndromes result from spontaneous plaque rupture and thrombosis.

Methods: We report 300 plaque ruptures in 257 arteries in 254 patients.