Sirolimus-versus paclitaxel-eluting stents: a comparison of two consecutive series in routine clinical practice

We compared two consecutive series of patients treated with sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) or paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES).

Two hundred and ninety-five patients with 590 coronary lesions were treated with 274 SES and 379 PES. Patients with symptoms or positive dobutamine stress echocardiography were subjected to repeat coronary angiography.

During a follow-up of 13.3 +/- 5.7 months, the incidence rate of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) was 4.1%, including, 1 death, 4 Q-wave myocardial infarctions, 2 late angiographic stent thromboses, 3 subacute stent thromboses, and 11 target vessel revascularizations (TVR), and was not significantly different between SES (n = 5) and PES (n = 7). Stent overlapping was found to be an independent predictor of both MACE (odds ratio = 0.078, P = 0.02) and TVR (odds ratio = 0.077, P = 0.02). Follow-up symptoms- or ischemia-driven angiography was performed in 45 patients. Only vessel size was a predictor of stent restenosis (P = 0.02), independent of stent type. Late loss was independently predicted by postdilatation of stent (beta =-0.24, P = 0.03), but not by type of stent (P = 0.14) or other parameters. Edge restenosis was seen in 8 patients subjected to lesion predilatation. The restenosis pattern after SES implantation was focal, but diffuse (n = 1) or proliferative (n = 1) restenosis, and in-stent aneurysm formation (n = 1) was also seen with PES.

Despite a trend for a higher incidence of MACE with PES, no significant differences between the two stent types were detected. Diffuse restenosis was seen only with PES, and edge restenosis only in lesions with balloon predilatation before stent implantation. Stent overlapping was an independent predictor of both TVR and MACE.