Early vascular healing after endothelial progenitor cell capturing stent implantation.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To assess early vascular healing with endothelial progenitor cell (EPC)-capturing stents. BACKGROUND: Endothelialization of stent struts is crucial after stenting, since delayed vascular healing predisposes to stent thrombosis. The antibody-coated Genous stent promotes rapid endothelialization by capturing circulating EPCs. METHODS: We enrolled 20 patients who had EPC-capturing stent implanted in the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery. Patients underwent optical coherence tomography 30 days following the index procedure. Coronary flow reserve (CFR) was assessed in the LAD by transthoracic echocardiography at 30 days. RESULTS: After follow-up of 31.8 ± 5.3 days, the binary stent strut coverage was 95% and the percentage of malapposed struts was 2.4%. No thrombi were detected. The mean neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) thickness was 108 ± 96 µm and the percent NIH area was 8.9 ± 7.4%. The mean CFR was 2.4 ± 0.7. CONCLUSIONS: The EPC-capturing stent showed rapid endothelialization, low NIH area, and few malapposed struts at 30 days.