Heparin-coating of coronary stents.

The development of the end-point attached HC stent should be regarded against the early unfavourable results with uncoated stents in the pre-IVUS- and pre-ticlopidine era. Despite this, results of pilot- and randomized trials show a surprising low incidence of (sub)acute stent thrombosis under challenging circumstances like acute coronary events. Considering the quite low incidence of early complications of non-coated second generation stents it may require very large trials to test the clinical efficacy of the HC coating against non-coated devices. However, even if the 'added value' of the HC coating is never scientifically proven, it has helped to a large degree to enhance the penetration of stent-therapy in interventional cardiology. Unlike the situation in 1992, very few cardiologists will now oppose the statement that stents contribute to the state of the art treatment of patients with angina pectoris or acute myocardial infarction.