Heart surgeons across the country perform thousands of bypass procedures every year. The bypasses can develop narrowings, which are treated by a stent – or metal tube – used to keep blood vessels open after a balloon angio-plasty. About one-quarter of these bypasses become narrowed again, when tissue re-grows and blocks the vessel. University of Iowa Heart Care specialists are studying a new stent they hope will prevent that re-growth.

"What this new stent does is it places a fabric around the stent so that all of the gaps in the stent are covered by the fabric," says James Rossen, M.D., UI Heart Care specialist.

Rossen believes covering those gaps with special fabric will prevent re-growth of tissue and avoid development of another narrowing of the artery. The fabric-covered stent may also help reduce a common complication when bits of tissue break off from the repaired part of the bypass graft and then cause blockages elsewhere in the heart.

"There has been tremendous progress in the treatment of coronary artery disease in the last 20 years, and that progress is continuing. Studies such as this, with very unique new devices, I think, hold tremendous promise for benefiting patients in the future," says Rossen.

University of Iowa Heart Care researchers will enroll up to 30 patients with a narrowing in their bypass grafts. For more information about this study, contact UI Health Access at 800-777-8442.

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James Rossen, M.D.