Percutaneous polymeric stents in porcine coronary arteries. Initial experience with polyethylene terephthalate stents.

Abstract

BACKGROUNDTo test the feasibility of percutaneous deployment of intracoronary polymeric stents, a prototype polyethylene terephthalate (PET) stent and a catheter-based delivery system were developed.METHODS AND RESULTSPolymeric stents were deployed in the coronary arteries of 11 Yucatan swine: six stents were placed in the left anterior descending coronary artery, four stents were placed in the circumflex artery, and one stent was placed in the right coronary artery. Stent deployment was achieved by withdrawal of an outer delivery sheath, thus allowing the PET stent to self-expand to a preformed configuration. Two animals died during surgery, one during stent placement and the other several hours after implantation due to intracoronary thrombus formation. Two animals were electively sacrificed within 24 hours of stent implant to examine the adequacy of stent deployment within the coronary vessel. The remaining seven animals survived until the termination of the study 4-6 weeks later. Light microscopic exa...