| abstract |
Medical devices, compositions and methods for treating or preventing atherosclerotic plaque rupture are disclosed. Specifically, medical devices that deliver to a treatment site metalloproteinase inhibitors (MMPI) are disclosed. The medical devices include catheters, guide wires, vascular stents, micro-particles, electronic leads, probes, sensors, drug depots, transdermal patches, and vascular patches. Representative MMPIs included zinc chelators, urea derivatives, caprolactone-based inhibitors, phoshoinamides, piperazines, sulfonamides, tertiary amines, carbamate derivatives, mercaptoalcohols, mecaptoketones, antimicrobial tertracyclines, non-antimicrobial tetracyclines, and derivatives and combinations thereof. In one embodiment a self-expanding vascular stent is coated with at least one MMPI and deployed at a site within an artery where vulnerable plaque has been identified. |