Mortality with Paclitaxel-Coated Devices in Peripheral Artery Disease.

Background: The results of a recent meta-analysis aroused concern about an increased risk of death associated with the use of paclitaxel-coated angioplasty balloons and stents in lower-limb endovascular interventions for symptomatic peripheral artery disease.

Methods: We conducted an unplanned interim analysis of data from a multicenter, randomized, open-label, registry-based clinical trial. At the time of the analysis, 2289 patients had been randomly assigned to treatment with drug-coated devices (the drug-coated-device group, 1149 patients) or treatment with uncoated devices (the uncoated-device group, 1140 patients).

Increased vascular injury reduces the degree of intimal hyperplasia following angioplasty in rabbits.

Background/aims: Formation of intimal hyperplasia following angioplastic procedures can lead to complications, including restenosis and accelerated atherosclerosis. The vessel wall media is a main source of neointimal cells. However, evidence suggests that there are additional cell sources, such as the adventitia.

Endovascular management of acute bleeding arterioenteric fistulas.

The objective of this study was to review the outcome of endovascular transcatheter repair of emergent arterioenteric fistulas. Cases of abdominal arterioenteric fistulas (defined as a fistula between a major artery and the small intestine or colon, thus not the esophagus or stomach), diagnosed over the 3-year period between December 2002 and December 2005 at our institution, were retrospectively reviewed. Five patients with severe enteric bleeding underwent angiography and endovascular repair.

Photodynamic therapy reduces intimal hyperplasia in prosthetic vascular bypass grafts in a pig model.

Background: Bypass surgery has a failing frequency of 30% during the first year, mainly due to intimal hyperplasia (IH). This negative effect is most pronounced in artificial grafts. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a technique in which light activates photosensitizer dyes to produce free-radicals resulting in an eradication of cells in the vascular wall.

Healing of PTFE grafts in a pig model recruit neointimal cells from different sources and do not endothelialize.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the cellular sources for the neointima and the cell type that is lining the lumen in artificial grafts implanted in pigs.

Materials And Methods: We used polytetrafluoroethylene grafts as bypasses from the common to the external iliac arteries. The animals were sacrificed after 1, 4, 7, 14, 21, 30, 60 and 90 days.