CORRESPONDENCE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Reply
Neil J. Weissman, MD, FACC* and
Gregg W. Stone, MD, FACC
* Washington Hospital Center, 110 Irving Street, NW, Suite EB-5123, Washington, DC 20010 (Email: Neil.J.Weissman{at}medstar.net).
We appreciate Dr. Kaneda’s astute observation about the data contained in our report (1) on the intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) results from TAXUS-IV. It is indeed true that there was a trend for the vessel receiving a TAXUS stent to demonstrate positive remodeling, similar to prior drug-eluting stent (DES) reports. The analysis for remodeling used only TAXUS and non-TAXUS patients with complete volumetric IVUS data of the external elastic membrane (EEM) throughout the stent length at both the time of stent implantation and at follow-up. As it states in the Methods section, "Volumes were calculated only if the vascular interface was visualized every millimeter throughout the stent" (i.e., we did not extrapolate the EEM border for images in which it was not visualized). Thus, not all patients with EEM volume data at stent implantation had EEM volume data at follow-up, and vice-versa. Table 2 of the study (1) reports all the volume data at one time point (postimplantation or follow-up) and the statistical analysis for change (and Figure 1 of the report [1] displaying change over time) used only patients that had paired postimplantation and follow-up EEM volume data. Hence, the results of a trend toward positive remodeling in the TAXUS stent are indeed accurate and in concordance with other DES studies.
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References
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1. Weissman NJ, Koglin J, Cox DA, et al. Polymer-based paclitaxel-eluting stents reduce in-stent neointimal tissue proliferationa serial volumetric intravascular ultrasound analysis from the TAXUS-IN trial. J Am Coll Cardiol 2005;45:1201-1205.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Related Article
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Intravascular Ultrasound Analysis of Polymer-Based Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents
- Hideaki Kaneda
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2006 47: 470.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
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