title: The development of carotid stent material.
abstract: Endovascular angioplasty with stenting is a promising option for treating carotid artery stenosis. There exist a rapidly increasing number of different stent types with different materials. The bare-metal stent is the most commonly used stent with acceptable results, but it leaves us with the problems of thrombosis and restenosis. The drug-eluting stent is a breakthrough as it has the ability to reduce the restenosis rate, but the problem of late thrombosis still has to be addressed. The biodegradable stent disappears after having served its function. However, restenosis and degradation rates remain to be studied. In this article, we review every stent material with its characteristics, clinical results and complications and point out the standards of an ideal carotid stent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Dongsheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Wenhua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering and Applied Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Biodegradable stents; Carotid stents; Drug-eluting stents; Nitinol stents