KU profs Soon-Jun Hong and Chul-Min Ahn are selected as honorable Korean people by BRIC
The cardiovascular center of the Korea University Anam hospital proved the efficacy of drug-eluting stents for the treatment of coronary restenosis

▲ Soon-Jun Hong (on the left) and Do-Sun Lim (on the right), professors at the College of Medicine at Korea University

The Biology Research Information Center (BRIC) has selected two professors at the College of Medicine at Korea University, Soon-Jung Hong and Do-Sun Lim, as Honorable Korean People.

Hong and Lim analyzed the efficacy of drug-eluting stents for the treatment of coronary restenosis, which causes recurrent chest pain, and found that both everolimus-eluting stents (EESs) and zotarolimus-eluting stents (ZESs) have similar levels of safety and efficacy.

Their research findings have been published under the title of “Prospective randomized comparison of clinical and angiographic outcomes between everolimus-eluting vs. zotarolimus-eluting stents for treatment of coronary restenosis in drug-eluting stents: intravascular ultrasound volumetric analysis (RESTENT-ISR trial)” in the latest issue of the European Heart Journal, a leading medical journal in the field of cardiovascular medicine with the Impact Factor of 15.064.

The two researchers, who led this research project, have been selected as Honorable Korean People by BRIC for their contributions to the findings.
 

Cardiovascular stents are implantable devices used as vessel scaffolding to alleviate arterial narrowing or stenosis. Drug-eluting stents are superior to and more widely used than balloon angioplasty in treating coronary artery disease in Korea. However, there are no proven treatment options available in the world for drug-eluting stent restenosis yet. 

Currently, 5-10% of patients with drug-eluting stent restenosis are treated with drug-eluting balloon angioplasty or drug-eluting stenting, but there has been limited research on which treatment is the safest and most effective for patients. In this regard, the research team compared the effects of EESs and ZESs, two of the most widely used but relatively under-researched treatments for drug-eluting stent restenosis, to find the most effective treatment.

The team conducted a study on 304 patients with in-stent restenosis aged between 40 and 75 years old. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive either EES (158 patients) or ZES (146 patients). The primary endpoint of the study was to compare neointima volume between the EES and ZES groups at the 9-month follow-up intracoronary ultrasound (IVUS). The researchers tracked and observed major adverse cardiovascular events including death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis and the need for repeated target lesion revascularization (TLR) within three years.

After analyzing the research data, it was revealed that both EES and ZES implantation were effective and safe independent of sex, age, body mass index, presence of diabetes and hypertension. Professor Hong at the Cardiovascular Center of the Korea University Anam Hospital said, “Fundamental experiments and clinical research to find effective ways to reduce stent restenosis and major adverse cardiovascular events are currently underway.” He added, “This research project proved that both EES and ZES are safe and effective. Our next mission is to improve stenting outcomes so that patients could be provided with a better quality of life.”