Heart patients with small, difficult to treat vessels requiring stenting procedures may soon have another viable option to treat coronary artery disease.
Heart patients with small, difficult to treat vessels requiring stenting procedures may soon have another viable option to treat coronary artery disease. Known as the CardioMind® SparrowTM Drug-Eluting Coronary Stent System, this stent is 70% smaller in diameter than any other currently approved stent and targets at blood vessels smaller than 2.75mm in diameter. The centre estimates that 10% - 30% of the patients requiring percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) may benefit from this revolutionary stent. The Sparrow Stent is currently being evaluated in a clinical trial.
At its annual cardiology conference, the Singapore LIVE 2009, NHC also introduces a novel technique, the retrograde approach for chronic total occlusion (CTO). CTO is a condition whereby an artery has been completely blocked for more than three months. It is present in 20% - 30% of patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease who undergo diagnostic coronary angiography.
Approximately 5% - 10% of all percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) are CTO interventions. Generally, success rates with CTO using the conventional ‘front’ or ‘antegrade’ approach have been unsatisfactory, with only about a 50% success rate, and up to 70% at very good centres.
The retrograde approach raises the success rate to more than 90%, a marked improvement of 20% - 40%. This success is more significant when seen in the context of cases that have already failed a prior antegrade attempt, as it will have the same high success rate, when done via the retrograde approach.
Please click
here to read the media release.