One year outcomes of cypher stent implantation for patients with acute myocardial infarction

Background : Several trials on the use of drug-eluting stents (DES) have showed that DES significantly reduced the need for revascularization. However, the safety and efficacy of the use of DES in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains unknown. Methods and Results : A consecutive 143 patients (August 2004 to July 2006) with AMI undergoing primary stenting using Cypher stents were compared with an historical control of 129 consecutive patients (August 2002 to July 2004) undergoing primary stenting using bare metal stents (BMS). Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) free rate at one year was significantly higher in the DES group than in the BMS group (90.3% and 77.0%, respectively ; p = 0.006). This is primary driven by the reduction in target vessel revascularization (TVR) (8.3% and 20.2%, respectively ; p = 0.01). There was no significant difference in rates of death (0.7% and 1.5%, respectively ; p = 0.50), non fatal myocardial infarction (MI) (2.1% and 4.9%, respectively; p = 0.24), and CABG (1.7% and 0.9%, respectively ; p = 0.62) between the groups. Late stent thrombosis didn't occur in either groups. Conclusions : These findings suggested that DES can be used effectively and safely, as compared to BMS, in daily practice. However, a long-term follow-up beyond 1 year should be undertaken to confirm the safety of DES in these patients.