Stents and IIb/IIIa receptor blockers combined: usefulness in various types of coronary artery disease.

Abstract

Both the implantation of intracoronary stents and the use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor blocking agents have been proven to be of value in the invasive management of coronary artery disease. Stenting is shown to decrease restenosis rate considerably, and is of great use in countering complications of balloon angioplasty, e.g. dissection and abrupt closure. The use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor blocking agents has been demonstrated to be beneficial as an adjunctive to intracoronary interventions; it has a profound effect on the rate of acute intervention related complications, but not on the occurrence of chronic restenosis. The scope of this article is to evaluate the usefulness of the combination of stents and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa blocking agents in various manifestations of coronary artery disease. It is concluded that a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist as an adjunctive to the application of a stent is especially useful when thrombus can be assumed to be present in a clinically relevant quantity.