Endothelium-dependent vasomotor dysfunction in pig coronary arteries with paclitaxel-eluting stents is associated with inflammation and oxidative stress

esults Paclitaxel-eluting stents showed reduced late lumen loss, but inflammation and luminal nflammatory cell adherence were higher than for BMS (p 0.001) at overlapped segments. Endohelium-dependent relaxation to substance P was significantly impaired in PES at nonstented coroary reference segments ( 15 mm proximally and distally) and perfusion bed resistance arteries p 0.05). In contrast, endothelium-independent relaxation to nitroglycerin and sodium-nitropruside was similar between groups. Local O2 · production at both proximal and distal nonstented cornary reference segments was elevated for PES when compared with O2 · production in BMS and aive arteries (p 0.001).