A platinum chromium alloy has been used in Boston Scientific Corporation's TAXUS Petal Bifurcation Paclitaxel-Eluting Stent System.

The new stent system has been trialled for the first time on a human patient, Boston Scientific has announced.

It is hoped the new process will allow for a more effective treatment method in cases of coronary artery disease, because this new stent is designed to be put in place at a bifurcation, where one artery branches into two smaller arteries. Although 30 per cent of coronary artery disease occurs at bifurcations, where plaque can easily build up, conventional stents are designed to treat tubular arteries and therefore are not well-designed to treat plaque build-ups at bifurcations.

However, the new stent system is aimed at getting around this problem and uses a proprietary platinum chromium alloy, which the manufacturers believe offers "an improvement over stainless steel and cobalt chromium, enabling even thinner struts, increased flexibility and improved radiopacity", the company said in a statement.

Source:

Boston Scientific Announces First Human Use of TAXUS(R) Petal(TM) Bifurcation Stent, 17/07/07
http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20070717/NETU05317072007-1.html

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