Placement and angiographic patency of the Strecker coronary stent

The Strecker stent is a newer, balloon-expandable vascular prosthesis consisting of a single tantalum filament knitted into a flexible mesh tube. To test the placement characteristics and patency of this device, we implanted 29 stents in the coronary arteries of 24 juvenile Yorkshire swine. Seventeen stents were placed in the left anterior descending artery, and 12 were placed in the left circumflex system. All stents were deployed successfully. Four animals died within the first 24 hr of anesthesia-related complications. The remaining animals were sacrificed at 24 hr, 1 week, 2 weeks, or 4 weeks. Follow-up angiography demonstrated the patency of all stents. There were no episodes of stent migration or side branch occlusion. The Strecker stent has several favorable characteristics, including its unique delivery system, ease of deployment, flexibility, radiopacity, and radial strength. There was 100% patency at up to 4 weeks in this animal model. Further studies are required to define whether the knitted mesh design offers any advantage over previous models.