Local delivery of r-hirudin by a double-balloon perfusion catheter prevents mural thrombosis and minimizes platelet deposition after angioplasty.

Abstract

Local therapy with the specific thrombin inhibitor r-hirudin significantly reduces short-term quantitative platelet deposition and macroscopic mural thrombus formation following balloon angioplasty compared with systemic treatment of conventional doses of heparin and hirudin and requires a significantly smaller amount of the recombinant drug.