Manchester Heart Centre researchers recruit first UK patient to trial comparing stents in coronary artery stenosis sufferers

Congratulations to Dr Farzin Fath-Ordoubadi, Consultant Cardiologist, and his research team at the Manchester Heart Centre for recruiting the first UK patient to the Merit Study.

Merit is an open label, randomised clinical study to compare two types of marketed stents in patients with coronary artery stenosis. This condition is triggered as a result of narrowing of the blood vessels that supply blood to heart muscles, called the coronary arteries, causing poor blood flow. In order to improve the blood flow and to relieve symptoms, doctors perform a procedure called angioplasty, where a small balloon is inflated inside the artery to open it up. To hold the artery open, a tiny metallic cylindrical mesh, called a stent, is implanted during angioplasty.

There is a risk of the stent re-blocking over a few months or years and so the stent is coated with a device known as a Drug Eluting Stent. BioMime and Xience are among such devices which are already used in day-to-day clinical practice. Dr Farzin Fath-Ordoubadi said: “The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the BioMime device as compared with Xience family device. It is mainly scientific and such comparative studies are performed routinely to evaluate scope of improvement in the treatment of the disease in various aspects and the device.

I’d like to thank the dedication of the Manchester Heart Centre research team and the cardiology team for working so hard to recruit the first UK patient to this trial. This once again illustrates our excellent performance in managing clinical studies.