
Cordis Corp. is touting the 10-year anniversary of the first implantation of a drug-eluting stent, saying a now-85-year-old patient showed nearly complete coverage a decade after receiving the first Cypher stent.
The Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary said a 75-year-old woman was implanted with the sirolimus-eluting device in 1999, to treat a single lesion in the left anterior descending artery. In 2009, angiography, IVUS examination and an optical coherence tomography test showed "a complete coverage of over 90 percent of the analyzed struts," according to a press release.
The stent is designed to release sirolimus, an anti-inflammatory drug, over a 90-day period to prevent blood vessels from growing over the stent before the lesion has chance to heal, according to the release. Cordis announced the 10-year results today at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Stockholm.