Drug-Eluting Balloons–A New Tool in the Treatment of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy: A Case Series.

Percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with cardiac allograft vasculopathy is burdened with a lot of difficulties. Although they have allowed significant progress in comparison with plain balloon angioplasty and bare metal stents, drug-eluting stents have not fully overcome problems of diffuse lesions and small-vessel disease that are so common in transplant coronary artery disease. There is growing evidence that drug-eluting balloons might be a better choice for patients with small vessel atherosclerotic coronary disease and yet there is no experience with this technology in patients with cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Herein we report a case series of successful percutaneous coronary interventions in patients with cardiac allograft vasculopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]