Cardiology

New Drug Eluting Coronary Balloon Dilation Catheter Launched

Dior, the first and only CE-marked drug (paclitaxel) eluting coronary balloon dilatation catheter used in coronary angioplasties, was launched.

According to company sources, treatment with Dior does not necessitate the permanent placement of a foreign object within the patient's body for many patient cases, as it is done when a Bare Metal Stent (BMS) or a Drug Eluting Stent (DES) is used. Also, unlike a DES that elutes a drug over a period of 90 days, Dior releases paclitaxel in 30 seconds (which acts with decreasing efficacy over a period of five days), thereby significantly reducing the need for long term antiplatelet drug therapy. This also makes Dior a convenient treatment for high-risk and non-compliant patients.

Dior is the least minimally invasive therapeutic approach to deal with stent-associated adverse issues— in-stent restenosis (re-clogging of a coronary artery after the placement of a bare metal stent (22-25 per cent of all such cases) and late-stent thrombosis (10-15 per cent of all such cases). It optimises long-term BMS results by delivering a drug to counter the re-formation of plaque within the treated artery.

Said Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Shirish Hiremath of Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune, "It has revolutionised the angioplasty landscape by giving birth to a whole new family of alternative interventional treatments."

The device has been tested in more than 7,000 patients through eight ongoing international multi-centre clinical trials. The product is approved by the Drug Controller General of India in January 2009.

EH News Bureau