New Stenting Device To Revolutionise Coronary Artery Disease Treatment

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) - The National Heart Institute (IJN) has
become the first centre in Malaysia and South East Asia to implant a new
stenting device, 'Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold' (BVS), to revolutionise the
treatment of coronary artery disease.

The new technology has a prospect for positive therapeutic outcomes
resulting from its unique ability to treat blocked vessel, potentially restore
vessel functions and disappear within approximately two years after impantation.

IJN managing director Dr Robaayah Zambahari said the new BVS was
made of polylactide, a proven biocompatible material commonly used in medical
implants such as resorbable sutures.

"The BVS will go away in time. Because it is not made of metal, it will
dissolve over time in the body. It will change into water and carbon dioxide
and therefore, disappear slowly," she told a press conference here Friday.

"The metalic stents stays in the patient's body. But the scaffold dissolves
and disappears over time, leaving the vessel intact and leaving the vessel in
its natural state with the ability to pump or move as it previously was.

"The BVS supports the artery long enough for the artery to remodel itself,
and also for the drug to work to prevent cell growth," she said.

Before BVS was introduced, the treatment for coronary artery disease has
come a long way since the balloon angioplasties, followed by bare metal stents
and currently drug-eluting (metalic) stents (DES), she added.

Last Tuesday, Dr Robaayah and consultant cardiologist Dr K. Balachandran,
aided by a team of invasive cardiovascular laboratory staff and the clinical
research team, performed the initial implant on retiree Gopal Krishnan, 62.

Dr Robaayah said the BVS, also known as ABSORB, had the potential to benefit
patients even more as it could extract the drug, everolimus, which prevented
cell growth, over the next 90 days or so.

She said the size of the device used depended on the patient's blood
vessel which was recognised through the angiogram process.

The device measures from 2.5mm, 3mm and 3.5mm in diameter and comes in
various lengths.

Dr Robaayah disclosed the device would potentially be more beneficial
to paediatric patients.

"A metallic implant would require the patient to undergo surgery to remove
the implant. But if the implant dissolves away, a child would not require such
surgery.

"If the narrowing does not upen up fully as the child grows, a new
scaffold can be put without the child having to go through surgery," she said.

Currently, the BVS is on a clinical trial.

Fifteen patients will be involved in the implant trial this year, with the
cost fully borne by IJN.