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The proven benefits of primary percutaneous coronary intervention in acute myocardial infarction (MI) can be limited by suboptimal myocardial perfusion due to distal embolization. In a manufacturer-supported randomized trial, investigators tested an experimental bare-metal stent covered with a polyethylene terephthalate micronet mesh for trapping and excluding embolism-prone material to find out whether the device reduces ST-segment elevation better than commercially available stents (including both bare-metal and drug-eluting devices).
A total of 433 patients with ST-segment-elevation MI were randomized. The rate of device success was lower with the covered stent than with control stents (96% vs. 99%, P=0.03); covered-stent failures include…