Does nickel allergy play a role in the development of in-stent restenosis?

R. El-Mawardy, H. Fuad, Z. Abdel-Salam, M. Ghazy, W. Nammas

 Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo (Egypt)

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• Cardiology

Objectives: It was suggested that coronary in-stent restenosis might be triggered by allergy to nickel and molybdenum ions released from stainless-steel stents. We sought to explore any possible relationship between nickel allergy and in-stent restenosis.

Materials and Methods: 50 patients were studied, who underwent elective follow-up coronary angiography for recurrent symptoms after prior coronary stenting, at least 3 months following the index procedure. Consecutively, we enrolled 25 patients with ≥50% in-stent restenosis (study group), and 25 others with

Results: The mean age of the whole study cohort was 55.9 ± 13.9 years, 44 (88%) being males. Two patients of the study group (8%) had a history of contact allergy to metals. However, both of them showed a negative patch test result. No patient in the control group had a history of metal allergy (p >0.05). Only one patient in the study group (4%) had a positive patch test result for nickel contact allergy, whereas all patients in the control group had a negative result (p >0.05).

Conclusions: Based on the available evidence, a cause-effect relationship between nickel allergy and in-stent restenosis cannot be confirmed.

Corresponding Author: Wail Nammas, MD; e-mail: wnammas@hotmail.com

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