Incidence of stent thrombosis and adverse cardiac events 5 years after sirolimus stent implantation in clinical practice

Coronary Stents and Subsequent Surgery: Reported Provider Attitudes and Practice Patterns

Management of antiplatelet therapy in patients with cardiac stents who need subsequent surgery is complex. Current guidelines recommend delaying elective surgery or, if surgery is emergent, proceeding without aspirin cessation. This study assessed provider knowledge, attitudes, and practices for patients with cardiac stents needing subsequent surgery. A national survey was administered to Veterans Administration surgeons, anesthesiologists, and cardiologists. Questions examined guideline awareness and agreement, perceptions of bleeding risk and stent thrombosis, practice patterns for antiplatelet therapy management, and experience with perioperative stent thrombosis. Chi-square tests and generalized estimating equations were used to examine differences in reported practices. Among 295 respondents, guideline awareness (92%) and agreement (93%) were high but higher among cardiologists and anesthesiologists than surgeons. Guideline agreement and personal experience with stent thrombosis were also associated with reported practice patterns. In adjusted models for early surgeries, cardiologists and anesthesiologists were more likely to report continuation of dual therapy as compared with surgeons regardless of stent type (drug-eluting P = 0.03; bare metal P < 0.01). Despite successful guideline adoption, significant variations in practice patterns by provider type were found. Understanding reasons behind the variation and outcomes of various antiplatelet management strategies are important steps in optimizing care of patients with coronary stents undergoing noncardiac surgery.

Time Course of Reendothelialization with Polyzene-F Nanocoated Cobra PzF™ Coronary Stent on Rabbit Iliac Arteries

PURPOSE

Evaluation of reendothelialization with a new thin struts cobalt chromium alloy stent coated with a nano-layer of Polyzene™-F (PzF) in a rabbit iliac artery model.

METHODS

Fifteen stented external rabbit iliac arteries were harvested at Day 7 for electron microscopy analysis following Cobra PzF stents implantation to assess reendothelialization and compare to historical data. Ten additional rabbits were used to assess time course of reendothelialization at 3 and 5 days.

RESULTS

At Day 7, almost complete coverage of endothelial cells was observed with a coverage of 99.54 ± 0.25% of the stented area. No thrombus area was noted. At Day 3, more than half of examined pieces was reendothelialized and reached 78.30 ± 3.7% at Day 5 (p < .01 between each group). All stents were well expanded against the arterial wall and no struts were mal-apposed.

CONCLUSIONS

Reendothelialization was rapid and complete at Day 7. This is the fastest reendothelization process after stenting in this model. No stent occlusion was observed.

Immediate and 1-year follow-up with the novel nanosurface modified COBRA PzF stent

BACKGROUND

The COBRA PzF coronary stent, which has a unique nano-coating of Polyzene-F, was developed to reduce the risk of stent thrombosis.

AIMS

To report procedural and 1-year clinical outcomes following COBRA PzF coronary stent implantation in a real-world percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) registry.

METHODS

All patients assigned to treatment with the COBRA PzF in the GCS Axium Rambot Center, Aix-en-Provence, France between February 2013 to June 2014 were prospectively enrolled.

RESULTS

Among 100 patients (71% men, mean±standard error age 71.4±11.0 years), 38% had acute coronary syndromes. The population was consistent with real-world experience and included patients with multiple co-morbidities and 26% with diffuse multivessel disease. A total of 151 lesions were treated with 166 stents, including 26% of lesions with a type B2 or C classification. Pre- and post-procedural quantitative coronary angiography analyses showed a mean acute gain of 2.2±0.2mm. Angiographic success was achieved in all cases. One-year follow-up was available for all patients and the target vessel failure (composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction or target vessel revascularization) rate was 12%, including 2% mortality (end-stage cardiomyopathy), 5% myocardial infarction (five periprocedural myocardial infarctions with isolated troponin elevation without chest pain or Q waves) and 5% target lesion revascularization. There were no cases of definite stent thrombosis.

CONCLUSION

The COBRA PzF stent was safe and effective in routine practice. One-year follow-up was associated with excellent clinical outcomes and compared favourably with current devices. These results are very promising in a real-world population of complex patients, and further study is warranted.

Ten-year clinical follow-up after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation

BACKGROUND

Little is known on the "very" long-term incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), target-lesion revascularization (TLR), target-vessel revascularization and stent thrombosis after sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantation. We present the first study to provide a 10-year clinical follow-up in an unselected patient population who underwent SES implantation.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We ran a systematic 10-year clinical follow-up in a series of 200 consecutive patients treated with unrestricted SES implantation between April 2002 and April 2003 in two Swiss hospitals. Outcomes and follow-up were obtained in all 200 patients. The cumulative 10-year MACE rate was 47% with all-cause death of 20%, cardiac death of 9%, myocardial infarction of 7%, TLR and target-vessel revascularization of 8% and 11% respectively. Academic Research Consortium-defined "definite and probable" stent thrombosis-rate was 2.5%. TLR risk was maximal between 3 to 6 years. New lesion revascularization increased throughout the study period.

CONCLUSION

Incidence of TLR was maximal 3 to 6 years after SES implantation and decreased thereafter. MACE and non-TLR revascularization rates steadily increased during the complete follow-up underlining the progression of coronary artery disease.

Perioperative management of a patient with recently placed drug-eluting stents requiring urgent spinal surgery

Patients receiving drug-eluting coronary stents (DES) require antiplatelet therapy for at least 12 months to prevent stent thrombosis (ST), a potentially calamitous event. Since interruption of antiplatelet therapy is the greatest risk factor for ST, it is imperative that the decision to discontinue these agents be based on an accurate assessment of the patient's risk for bleeding complications. Individuals who are regarded as being at a high risk are those undergoing intracranial, spinal or intraocular surgeries. These patients require alternative agents during the perioperative period to minimize both their risk of perioperative thrombosis and intraoperative hemorrhage. We report the case of a woman who required spinal surgery 3 months after she underwent placement of two drug-eluting stents. The patient's clopidogrel was stopped 5 days prior to surgery and an infusion of eptifibatide was used to "bridge" antiplatelet therapy during the perioperative period. Postoperatively, anticoagulation therapy was reinstituted using aspirin with clopidogrel. This case serves as a successful example of bridging therapy using a short acting and gycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitor as a means of maintaining antiplatelet therapy during the perioperative period to minimize the risk of stent thrombosis and the risk of intraoperative bleeding.

Stent-related cardiac events beyond three years after implantation of the sirolimus-eluting stent (from the EVASTENT Patients)

The frequency of very late stent thrombosis (VLST) up to 3 years after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation is 0.5% to 0.6%/year but incertitude remains about the frequency of VLAST after 3 years. Diabetic (db+) and nondiabetic (db-) patients with or without multiple diseased vessels included in the EVASTENT matched-cohort registry were followed up to 6 years after stent implantation. Long-term follow-up was obtained for 1,564 of the 1,731 included patients. All-cause deaths (including cancer and complications of diabetes) occurred at steady rates of 2.5%/year up to 3 years and 1.2%/year after 3 years (difference not significant). In contrast, VLST (any Academic Research Consortium definition) was only 0.18%/year (95% confidence interval 0.08 to 0.39) after 3 years versus 0.63%/year (confidence interval 0.41 to 0.98) from 1 year to 3 years (p = 0.03). Target lesion revascularization rates were also lower after 3 years than before 3 years (1.9% vs 7%, p ≤ 0.01) with 66% of revascularization procedures after 3 years being for nontarget lesions. Six-year all-cause death and cardiac death cumulative rates were higher in db+ than in db- patients. However, after 3 years compared to before 3 years, no differences between db+ and db- patients were observed for target lesion revascularization and ST rates. It is noteworthy that 51% of patients continued to be on clopidogrel therapy nearly 6 years after receiving ≥ 1 sirolimus-eluting stent. In conclusion, all-cause deaths continued at a steady rate over 6 years. However, cardiac deaths and "very" VLST leveled out beyond 3 years.