The Journal of Endovascular Therapy has carried an article in its current issue which evaluated the effectiveness of endovascular brachytherapy using liquid beta-emitting rhenium-188 delivered in an angioplasty balloon. It proved to be an improvement over other delivery methods since the balloon provides more accurate dose control than previous catheter techniques. In the clinical setting, the use of beta radiation also offers logistical advantages over the gamma radiation used in previous trials.
Ninety patients underwent angioplasty and endovascular brachytherapy for long-segment in-stent stenosis in the femoropopliteal segment. The treated stents were open in 95 per cent of the cases at six months after brachytherapy and in 80 per cent at one year. Only nine patients experienced in-stent stenosis and 10 had reocclusion of the treated segment of the artery. At 12 months, 62 per cent of the patients showed clinical improvement.
The Leipzig physicians who studied this endovascular brachytherapy technique were praised for resurrecting this promising technique, which had been stopped due to logistical problems. The improved delivery mode may mean that endovascular brachytherapy would become a viable means of treating in-stent stenosis in the near future.
EH News Bureau
- Advertisement -
