Bioavailability of EVA-Coated Metallic Stents Implanted in the Rabbit Iliac Artery

Nam, Sang Woo; Rhee, Byung Hyun; Chae, Jei Keon; Kim, Eun Kyung; Song, Chang Ho; Lee, Dong Hun; Khang, Gil Son; Kim, Won Ho; Ko, Jae Ki

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Coronary artery stenting actually shows a high efficacy in the treatment of coronary heart disease, but has the major limitation of restenosis. The ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), a biocompatible nondegradable copolymer, has been employed as a rate-controlling membrane in several drug delivery systems. Herein, the feasibility of an EVA-coated coronary stent was evaluated as a possible route for localized drug delivery.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 15 rabbits were employed in this study. An uncoated stent was implanted into the non-diseased iliac artery in six rabbits, and an EVA-coated stent into a further nine. On the 30th day following the stent implantations, stented segments of the iliac arteries were removed for histological processing and morphometric analysis.
RESULTS
The mean neointimal area of the uncoated and coated groups were 1.009 and 1.011 mm2 (p=0.56), respectively. No inflammatory cells were found in coated group. There were no apparent differences between the two groups.
CONCLUSION
The results from this study have demonstrated that an EVA-coated coronary stent might be an appropriate method for the controlled-release of a drug.