Pill may prevent stent complication that re-block...( the high dose everolimus experienced lo...),Health

the high dose everolimus experienced loss of appetite and weight loss that was resolved by lowering the dose. When Virmani's team measured the thickness of the vessel wall they found that the high dose treatment was associated with a 46 percent reduction in intimal thickness compared to placebo while the lower dose reduced thickening by 40 percent compared to placebo. She says the drug is currently being studied as a treatment to prevent organ rejection in patients who undergo kidney transplantation. Virmani says she would like to study everolimus in patients who undergo stenting but she said there are no current plans for a clinical study of the drug in heart patients.

In an editorial that accompanies the study, David P. Faxon, M.D., cardiology section chief at the University of Chicago, writes that finding an effective pill to prevent restenosis would "allow more flexibility in a choice of the type of stent to be used. It could also be used as an adjunct in very high risk cases or recurrent restenosis. It's also possible that an effective oral agent might reduce the need for stenting altogether since stents have not been shown to be of value in certain circumstances such as small vessels smaller than 2.5mm in diameter."

But Faxon, who is a former president of the American Heart Association, cautioned that successful animal studies don't always translate into successful treatments in humans. He also notes that the first attempts at preventing restenosis concentrated on oral medications and those attempts were unsuccessful.

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Contact: Carole Bullock
carole.bullock@heart.org
214-706-1279
American Heart Association
30-Sep-2002

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