Comparison of Clinical Characteristics of Stent Thrombosis Between the Right Coronary Artery and the Left Coronary Artery - A Subanalysis of the REAL-ST Registry

Challenges of the newer generation of resorbable magnesium scaffolds: Lessons from failure mechanisms of the past generation

Bioresorbable scaffolds (BRS) were developed to overcome the obstacles of metallic stents, mostly related to sustained presence of metallic foreign body in the coronary vessel. Following earlier success of single-arm BRS studies, randomized controlled trials of Absorb bioresorbable vascular scaffold (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA) showed poor long-term clinical outcomes, particularly in terms of scaffold thrombosis. BRS made from magnesium alloy provide a promising alternative in terms of radial force, strut thickness and, potentially lower thrombogenicity. A recent clinical study demonstrated that magnesium-based BRS seems to be promising with regards to the risk of scaffold thrombosis. In this review, our aim is to describe the issues that prevented Absorb BVS from achieving favorable outcomes, provide current status of existing BRS technologies and the challenges that newer generation BRSs need to overcome, and the results of clinical studies for commercially available magnesium-based BRS, which remain the only BRS actively studied in clinical practice.

Drug-eluting stent thrombosis: current and future perspectives

Over the past 40 years, the safety and efficacy of percutaneous coronary intervention has dramatically improved by overcoming several challenges. The introduction of drug-eluting stent (DES) in particular was a major breakthrough in interventional cardiology. Compared to bare-metal stents, first-generation DES (G1-DES) has dramatically reduced the rates of in-stent restenosis and subsequent target lesion revascularization. However, major safety concerns surrounding stent thrombosis (ST) emerged with G1-DES in clinical practice as a result of the high incidences of death, myocardial infarction, and repeat revascularization associated with ST. To overcome these limitations, second-generation DES (G2-DES) has been developed with an improved stent platform with thinner strut and biocompatible durable or biodegradable polymers. Indeed, G2-DES, when compared with G1-DES, has improved clinical outcomes by reducing the risk of late thrombotic events while maintaining anti-restenotic efficacy, whereas ST still occurs, even with the use of G2-DES. This review gives an overview of pathophysiology, risk factors, and outcomes of ST after DES implantation. Additionally, we discuss the management and prevention of ST.

Independent Factors for In-Hospital Death Following Drug-Eluting Stent Thrombosis From the Japanese Adverse Event Report System

BACKGROUND

Stent thrombosis (ST) is a serious complication after drug-eluting stents (DES) implantation. To identify the risk factors of mortality following ST, we evaluated adverse event reports used for safety measures after approval.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Between July 2004 and August 2019, 2,887 ST case reports were submitted to the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency. Reports of probable or possible ST (n=604), with insufficient data regarding in-hospital outcome or duration between procedure and ST occurrence (n=37) or duplicate reports (n=191) were excluded. Accordingly, 2,045 reports with definite ST were analyzed. Among the subjects, there were 286 in-hospital deaths (14.0%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that left main trunk (LMT) (odds ratio [OR]: 4.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.26-6.96), chronic heart failure (CHF) (OR: 2.88, 95% CI: 1.61-5.14), hemodialysis (OR: 2.69, 95% CI: 1.66-4.36), prior stroke (OR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.15-4.51), over 70 years old (OR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.22-2.16), and right coronary artery (OR: 0.41, 95% CI: 0.27-0.63) were independent factors for in-hospital death after DES-ST.

CONCLUSIONS

LMT, CHF, hemodialysis, prior stroke, and older age were independently associated with higher risk of in-hospital death following DES-ST. If target patients have these factors, maximum preventive strategies against ST occurrence, including adequate dual-antiplatelet therapy duration and optimal DES deployment procedures, are required.