Tzafriri A, Garcia-polite F, Schulz-jander D, Melder R, Goshgarian J, Tunev S, Stone G, Edelman E. ‘Solubility-controlled sirolimus release from drug-filled stents.’

Summary: Whereas drug diffusion is typically the rate-limiting release mechanism observed in other polymer-coated drug-eluting stents (DES), drug release from prototype DFS is determined by a complex dissolution-precipitation mechanism sensitive to the equilibrium solubility of the loaded drug. Decreasing the equilibrium solubility of the drug leads to slower elution and a greater sensitivity to hole size. While passive diffusion is still the primary mechanism of drug transfer to tissue for prototype DFS, these insights provide a framework for precisely controlling drug elution kinetics from DFS and highlight the differentiating drug delivery mechanism and the ability for a more sustained and controlled elution relative to other polymer-free DES.

Poster presented at: EuroPCR; 2016 May 17-20; Paris, France.