Initial results and 6 month clinical follow-up after implantation of a silicon carbide coated coronary stent

Introduction and objectives. To present the initial Spanish experience with the Tenax coronary stent, a laser sculpted from high-precision 316L stainless steel coated with hydrogen rich amorphous silicon carbide that reduces thrombogenecity and improves biocompatibility. Patients and methods. From July 1998 to July 1999, 206 patients (62 +/- 5 years) underwent implantation of 231 Tenax stents in 9 centers as the only revascularization procedure. The most frequent clinical indication was unstable angina (66%), and most of the lesions were complex (class B2 and C). The target vessels were the left anterior descending (51%) and right coronary arteries (36%). The ejection fraction was < 0.5 in 19% cases. Results. Revascularization was complete in 70%, elective in 80%, and the implantation was direct in 25% of the cases. The procedure was successful in all the lesions, reducing stenosis from 62 +/- 16 to 16 +/- 10% and increasing the minimal luminal diameter from 0.81 +/- 0.40 to 2.61 +/- 0.59 mm. The TIMI flow was reduced in 30%, but normalized after the stent in all but one case: The incidence of cardiac events was minimal: 1 acute thrombosis (0.5%) resolved by a new angioplasty and 1 non-Q myocardial infarction (0.5%). At the 6-month clinical follow-up 10% of the patients presented complaints of angina greater than class II, and a new angioplasty was carried out in 1.9% of these cases. Conclusion. Clinical and angiographic data suggest that the hydrogenated silicon cart,ide coating of the Tenax coronary stent may indeed play a beneficial role in patient outcome, and should therefore be evaluated by prospective clinical trials.