Drug-coated balloons--the importance of packing and dosing antiproliferative drugs.

Several balloon catheters coated with paclitaxel have been shown to reduce restenosis rates in the superficial femoral artery (SFA) revealing a relatively wide therapeutic window of effective doses ranging from 2 to 3 µg/mm(2) balloon surface area. Delivering lower antiproliferative drug doses to the vessel wall may not be inferior to higher drug doses provided that effective drug-excipient formulations have been chosen. Leaving non-flow limiting dissection in the SFA non-stented might be an option after use of drug-coated balloons.