[An animal experiment on arterial wall reaction to stents coated with gold, silver and copper]

Expandable metallic stents coated with gold, silver, and copper, and bare stainless steel stents were implanted into the abdominal aorta of eight dogs to determine their effect on the vessel wall. The animals were observed for two weeks. Abdominal angiograms were taken every week. The dogs were then killed for macroscopic and histopathological examination. The results were as follows. (1) The stents coated with gold and the noncoated stainless steel stents showed less histopathologic change than the other stents. (2) The stents coated with copper were associated with severe erosion of the vessel wall and marked thrombus formation.