<![CDATA[Three-year results confirm benefit of drug-eluting stent]]>

<![CDATA[Three-year results confirm benefit of drug-eluting stent]]> XML February 21, 2005 14:35:05 English http://www.americanheart.org/Heart_and_Stroke_A_Z_Guide/copyr.html ? 2001 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited. 3006418 02/21/2004 02/21/2005 02/21/2008 All News /eprise/main/heart/Communications/content/News1109012921571 All heart failure; congestive heart failure heart failure; congestive heart failure 0 None Journal Report DALLAS, Feb. 22 – After three years, the rates of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients treated with drug-eluting stents was half the rate of patients treated with bare metal stents, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

“At six months and one year there were dramatic reductions in clinical events in patients treated with the Cypher stent. We can now say this early benefit is sustained at three years,” said lead author Jean Fajadet, M.D., of the Clinique Pasteur in Toulouse, France. At three years the MACE rate (which includes death, heart attack or repeat procedures) was 15.8 percent in the drug-eluting stent group versus 33.1 percent in the control group.

The Cypher stent, which is made by Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson Company, is coated with sirolimus, a drug that reduces restenosis (re-blockage) in coronary arteries that have been propped open with a stent.

The study enrolled 238 men and women, average age 60, with newly diagnosed blockages in a single native coronary artery. At three years, outcome data from 113 patients treated with sirolimus-eluting stents and 114 control patients were available for analysis.

The dramatic difference in the MACE rate is largely due to a significantly lower rate of re-narrowing of treated blockages. One-, two- and three-year survival rates without additional re-opening procedures, and survival rates without target vessel failure, are listed in the tables below.

Survival without second revascularization:

	1 year	2 years	3 years
Sirolimus	99.2	96.5	93.7
Bare metal	75.9	75.9	75

Survival without vessel failure:

	1 year	2 years	3 years
Sirolimus	95.8	93.2	87.9
Bare metal	71.2	69.4	67.3

Dr. Fajadet’s co-authors are Marie-Claude Morice, M.D.; Christoph Bode, M.D.; Paul Barragan, M.D.; Patrick W. Serruys, M.D.; William Wijns, M.D.; Constantino R. Constantini, M.D.; Jean-Léon Guermonprez, M.D.; Hélène Eltchaninoff, M.D.; Didier Blanchard, M.D.; Antonio Bartorelli, M.D.; Gert-Jan Laarman, M.D.; MarcoAntonio Perin, M.D.; J. Eduardo Sousa, M.D.; Gerhard Schuler, M.D.; Ferenc Molnar, M.D.; Giulio Guagliumi, M.D.; Antonio Colombo, M.D.; Ernesto Ban Hayashi, M.D.; and Egon Wülfert, B.Pharm.

Statements and conclusions of study authors that are published in the American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The American Heart Association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.

NR05 – 1026 (Circ/Fajadet)

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