Progress in drug-delivery systems in cardiovascular applications: stents, balloons and nanoencapsulation.

Drug-delivery systems in cardiovascular applications regularly include the use of drug-eluting stents and drug-coated balloons to ensure sufficient drug transfer and efficacy in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In addition to the delivery of antiproliferative drugs, the use of growth factors, genetic materials, hormones and signaling molecules has led to the development of different nanoencapsulation techniques for targeted drug delivery. The review will cover drug delivery and coating mechanisms in current drug-eluting stents and drug-coated balloons, novel innovations in drug-eluting stent technologies and drug encapsulation in nanocarriers for delivery in vascular diseases.

Nanoparticles-reinforced poly-l-lactic acid composite materials as bioresorbable scaffold candidates for coronary stents: Insights from mechanical and finite element analysis.

Current generation of bioresorbable coronary scaffolds (BRS) posed thrombogenicity and deployment issues owing to its thick struts and overall profile. To this end, we hypothesize that the use of nanocomposite materials is able to provide improved material properties and sufficient radial strength for the intended application even at reduced strut thickness. The nanocomposite formulations of tantalum dioxide (TaO), L-lactide functionalized (LA)-TaO, hydroxyapatite (HA) and LA-HA with poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) were evaluated in this study.

Bioresorbable Polymeric Scaffold in Cardiovascular Applications.

Advances in material science and innovative medical technologies have allowed the development of less invasive interventional procedures for deploying implant devices, including scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering. Biodegradable materials (e.g.