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Long-term safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents: two-year results of the REAL (REgistro AngiopLastiche dell'Emilia Romagna) multicenter registry.

Marzocchi A, Saia F, Piovaccari G, Manari A, Aurier E, Benassi A, Cremonesi A, Percoco G, Varani E, Magnavacchi P, Guastaroba P, Grilli R, Maresta A.

Istituto di Cardiologia, Università di Bologna, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy.

BACKGROUND: The long-term safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents (DES) have been questioned recently. METHODS AND RESULTS: Between July 2002 and June 2005, 10,629 patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention with either DES (n=3064) or bare-metal stents (BMS, n=7565) were enrolled in a prospective registry comprising 13 hospitals. We assessed the cumulative incidence of major adverse cardiac events (death, acute myocardial infarction, and target-vessel revascularization) and angiographic stent thrombosis during 2-year follow-up. A propensity score analysis to adjust for different baseline clinical, angiographic, and procedural characteristics was performed. The 2-year unadjusted cumulative incidence of major adverse cardiac events was 17.8% in the DES group and 21.0% in the BMS group (P=0.003 by log-rank test). Angiographic stent thrombosis was 1.0% in the DES group and 0.6% in the BMS group (P=0.09). After adjustment, the 2-year cumulative incidence of death was 6.8% in the DES group and 7.4% in the BMS group (P=0.35), whereas the rates were 5.3% in DES and 5.8% in BMS for acute myocardial infarction (P=0.46), 9.1% in DES and 12.9% in BMS for target-vessel revascularization (P<0.00001), and 16.9% in DES and 21.8% in BMS for major adverse cardiac events (P<0.0001). Independent predictors of target-vessel revascularization in the DES group were diabetes mellitus (hazard ratio 1.36, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 1.76), renal failure (hazard ratio 1.69, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 2.69), and reference vessel diameter (hazard ratio 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.45 to 0.93). CONCLUSIONS: In this large real-world population, the beneficial effect of DES in reducing the need for new revascularization compared with BMS extends to 2 years without evidence of a worse safety profile.

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PMID: 17562952 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]