BACKGROUND:

Drug-eluting coronary-artery stents have been shown to decrease restenosis and therefore the likelihood that additional procedures will be required after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We evaluated the use of a drug-eluting stent in patients undergoing PCI for acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation.

METHODS:

We randomly assigned 619 patients presenting with an acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation to receive either a paclitaxel-eluting stent or an uncoated stent. The primary end point was a composite of death from cardiac causes, recurrent myocardial infarction, or target-lesion revascularization at 1 year.

RESULTS:

Baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics in both groups were well matched. There was a trend toward a lower rate of serious adverse events in the paclitaxel-stent group than in the uncoated-stent group (8.8% vs. 12.8%; adjusted relative risk, 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.37 to 1.07; P=0.09). A nonsignificant trend was also detected in favor of the paclitaxel-stent group, as compared with the uncoated-stent group, in the rate of death from cardiac causes or recurrent myocardial infarction (5.5% vs. 7.2%, P=0.40) and in the rate of target-lesion revascularization (5.3% vs. 7.8%, P=0.23). The incidence of stent thrombosis during 1 year of follow-up was the same in both groups (1.0%).

CONCLUSIONS:

Although the use of paclitaxel-eluting stents in acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation reduced the incidence of serious adverse cardiac events at 1 year by 4.0 percentage points, as compared with uncoated stents, the difference was not statistically significant. (Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN65027270 [controlled-trials.com].).

Copyright 2006 Massachusetts Medical Society.