My mom just had two stents implanted, and agreed before the procedure to take part in a research study on stents coated with Taxol, (double-blind, 50% chance of her having recieved a study stent)...I read the study agreement, and am comfortable about mom's participation, but wondered if there were any flags we should be looking for either concerning the Taxol or the stents themselves...any insights are very welcome.
Thank you!

I assume you mean coronary artery stents. Taxol coating is being tried in several centers as a means to reduce the incidence of scar formation leading to closing of the stents; such narrowing (stenosis) is a problem with stents (a la Dick Cheney), and many coatings and various ancillary means such as radiation are being studied. Some reports of taxol are pretty promising. The amount attached to the stents is miniscule in terms of systemic effect: so I'd say there really isn't a downside if she's in the taxol group