Beyond Drug-Coated Stents

'Drug-coated stents' success will usher in a new era in interventional cardiology, argues Marty Leon, MD, one of the nation's top interventional cardiologists. He sees interventionalists taking the lead in new areas and expanding their presence in others, such as interventional radiology, and interventional neurology. New nanotechnologies will be used to manufacture stents to ensure better adhesion of therapeutic agents, and these will need new access technologies and imaging systems, for example.

In interventional cardiology, as in academia, every major advance represents both an ending and a beginning at the same time. Twenty-five years ago, the first angioplasty procedures heralded the hope of a significantly better way to treat coronary artery disease, one less invasive and delivering clinical results that rival bypass surgery. And who, today, would argue that angioplasty hasn't delivered on its early promise?

Yet, angioplasty had its limitations, particularly in the early days, and more to the point, it created new problems such...

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