Optimal stent design for drug delivery.

The efficacy and safety of drug-eluting coronary stents might differ depending on the pharmacologic agents and stent delivery systems used. Recent research has focused on the various constituents of drug-delivery stents, including the stent backbone, materials used as drug-delivery vehicles, and the physicochemical properties of the pharmacotherapeutic agents themselves. Metal stents coated with an outer layer of polymer (bioabsorbable or non-bioabsorbable) can be drug-loaded, thus providing more controlled and sustained drug delivery and allowing more optimal drug-tissue interactions. Among the next generation of drug-eluting stents will be a stent that uses the non-bioabsorbable polymer phosphorylcholine to release the sirolimus analogue ABT-578; another stent will use a highly deliverable cobalt-chromium metal alloy stent platform and, for the first time, a bioabsorbable polymeric coating (thin-film polylactic acid) for drug encapsulation and release.