Stent blockage

Sung JJ, Sollano JD, Lai CW et al (1999) Long-term ciprofloxacin treatment for the prevention of biliary stent blockage a prospective randomized study. Am J Gastroenterol 94 3197-3201... 

Figure 4 Balloon angioplasty with and without stent deployment, (a) In balloon angioplasty, a thin catheter is threaded through the circulatory system until the uninflated balloon at its tip penetrates the diseased artery at the point of blockage, as shown in the top diagram. The balloon is then inflated to expand the artery, as shown in the middle, before being deflated and withdrawn to allow blood flow to resume (bottom panel). (b) An increasingly common feature of angioplasty involves deployment of an expandable wire structure to help keep the artery from collapsing after the balloon is withdrawn. The procedure is the same as in (a), except that a wire stent is placed over the balloon before insertion (top). The stent expands when the balloon is inflated (middle) and retains its expanded form after the balloon and catheter are withdrawn (bottom), remaining in place after the procedure is complete to provide a permanent structural support for the arterial wall.

A double-blind, placebo-controUed, prospective trial [37] enrolled 97 patients with diabetes in whom angiography had revealed coronary artery blockages. The patients were randomized to either a loading dose of 8 mg of rosiglitazone before angiography and stent placement, followed by 4 mg of rosiglitazone for 6 months or placebo on the same schedule. At the end of the 6-month period. 

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