When he was offered the possible comparative analogies of a person being run over by a rickshaw or run over by a locomotive, Waksman said DES-stent thrombosis clearly is the “locomotive” of adverse events. More specifically, he told MDD that DES-associated thrombus may result in a death rate of up to 50%.

— Ron Waksman, MD, associate director of the division of cardiology at Washington Hospital Center (Washington), presenting a study at the American Heart Association meeting indicating that the DES-associated category of thrombosis is a “highly morbid event,” “Big study offers ‘reassurance’ to drug-eluting stent safety,” pp. 7, 11.