Novel Stent Has High Revascularization Rates

But has similar rates of death and myocardial infarction as a comparable stent

WEDNESDAY, April 16 (HealthDay News) -- A drug-eluting stent containing a novel bioresorbable polymer has similar rates of death and myocardial infarction as an otherwise similar stent in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, but much higher rates of target vessel revascularization, researchers report in the April 22 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Mitchell W. Krucoff, M.D., from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and colleagues randomly assigned 1,675 patients (at a 3:2 ratio) undergoing single or multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention to receive a CoStar drug-eluting stent (Conor MedSystems) with reservoirs containing a bioresorbable polymer or a Taxus drug-eluting stent (Boston Scientific) coated with a biostable polymer.

The researchers found that the eight-month rate of major adverse cardiac events was significantly higher for the CoStar stent (11 versus 6.9 percent). For the CoStar and Taxus stents, adjudicated death was similar (0.5 versus 0.7 percent, respectively) and myocardial infarction was similar (3.4 versus 2.4 percent, respectively), but clinically driven target vessel revascularization was significantly higher (8.1 versus 4.3 percent, respectively). The CoStar stent had a significantly higher in-segment late loss per vessel at nine months (0.49 versus 0.18 mm).

"The CoStar drug-eluting stent is not non-inferior to the Taxus drug-eluting stent based on per-patient clinical and per-vessel angiographic analyses," Krucoff and colleagues conclude. "The relative benefit of Taxus is primarily attributable to reduction in target vessel revascularization. Follow-up to nine months showed no apparent difference in death, myocardial infarction or stent thrombosis rates."

The study was supported by a grant from Conor MedSystems, and several of the study authors have financial relationships with the company and other medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

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