Drug-Eluting Stents Found Equal

A comprehensive study has found that the two drug-eluting coronary stents currently being marketed are "virtually identical.” The finding was reported at the annual meeting of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics in Washington (DC, USA) in October 2005.

The two drug-eluting stents are Taxus, from Boston Scientific (Natick, MA, USA), and Cypher, from Cordis Corp. (Miami Lakes, FL, USA). Drug-eluting stents are designed to outperform bare-metal stents in preventing the recurrence of blockage in coronary arteries repaired by angioplasty.

The study was based on findings from the Stent Registry, a partnership of three North Carolina (USA) healthcare systems that gather data from multiple U.S. sites and include a nine-month follow-up of patients based on a profile of the general populace. This is in contrast to earlier trials that focused on patient populations carefully screened to exclude high-risk cases. The new findings showed that the two drug-eluting stents had the same outcomes for target vessel re-vascularization (TVR) and for major adverse cardiac events (MACE), such as myocardial infarction, stroke, or death, following interventional treatment.

The findings were reported by Dr. Charles Simonton, of the Carolinas Heart Institute at Carolinas Medical Center (Charlotte, NC, USA). "This type of study has significant implications for coronary medicine,” he observed. "The sponsoring institutions are to be commended for taking a national leadership role in this timely effort to enhance the quality of coronary care. It ensures that their patients are among the first to benefit from new research.”






Related Links:
Boston Scientific
Cordis Corp.