A clinical and angiographic study of the XIENCE V everolimus-eluting coronary stent system in the treatment of patients with multivessel coronary artery disease. Study design and rationale of the EXECUTIVE trial

A clinical and angiographic study of the XIENCE V everolimus-eluting coronary stent system in the treatment of patients with multivessel coronary artery disease: the EXECUTIVE trial (EXecutive RCT: evaluating XIENCE V in a multi vessel disease)

OBJECTIVES

This study sought to investigate the efficacy and performance of the XIENCE V everolimus-eluting stent (EES) (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, California) in the treatment of de novo coronary lesions in patients with 2- to 3-vessel multivessel coronary artery disease (MV-CAD).

BACKGROUND

Drug-eluting stents (DES) have emerged as an alternative to conventional coronary artery bypass surgery in patients with MV-CAD although first-generation DES yielded inferior efficacy and safety compared with surgery.

METHODS

Prospective, randomized (1:1), multicenter feasibility trial was designed to assess angiographic efficacy of EES compared with the TAXUS paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) in 200 patients, and a prospective, open-label, single-arm, controlled registry was designed to analyze the clinical outcome of EES at 1-year follow-up in 400 MV-CAD patients. For the randomized trial, the primary endpoint was in-stent late loss at 9 months. For the registry, the primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, and ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization at 12 months.

RESULTS

The primary endpoint per single lesion was significantly lower in the EES group compared with the PES group (-0.03 ± 0.49 mm vs. 0.23 ± 0.51 mm, p = 0.001). Similar results were observed when analyzing all lesions (0.05 ± 0.51 mm vs. 0.24 ± 0.50 mm, p < 0.001). Clinical outcome at 1 year yielded a composite of major adverse cardiac events of 9.2% in the single-arm registry, and 11.1% and 16.5% in the EES and PES randomized groups, respectively (p = 0.30).

CONCLUSIONS

The EXECUTIVE trial was a randomized pilot trial dedicated to the comparison of the efficacy of 2 different DES among patients with 2- to 3-vessel MV-CAD. The study shows lower in-stent late loss at 9 months with the EES XIENCE V compared with the PES TAXUS Libertè, and a low major adverse cardiac event rate at 1 year in patients with 2-to 3-vessel MV-CAD. (EXECUTIVE [EXecutive RCT: Evaluating XIENCE V in a Multi Vessel Disease]; NCT00531011).

Everolimus-eluting stents: update on current clinical studies

Everolimus-eluting stents (EES) have become the most commonly implanted coronary stents worldwide. This review describes and analyzes the clinical data supporting the use of EES, focusing primarily on published, randomized, controlled trials. Everolimus-eluting stents have been shown to have less restenosis, stent thrombosis, and periprocedural myocardial infarction compared with earlier generation paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES). Lower rates of adverse events for EES compared with PES were generally seen in all subgroups, with the notable exception of patients with diabetes mellitus. There have been fewer, randomized, clinical trials comparing EES with either sirolimus-eluting stents or zotarolimus-eluting stents, although very good results with EES have been observed in the trials that have been performed. Recent clinical trial data suggest that this excellent safety and efficacy profile is maintained in a next-generation EES designed to have improved mechanical properties and radiopacity.