Despite emerging evidence that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is safe within 8 weeks after bare metal coronary stenting, there are limited data on the safety of MRI imaging very early (1 to 3 days) after stent implantation and no published studies to date on the safety of MRI after insertion of drug-eluting stents (DESs). Forty-nine patients underwent cardiovascular MRI (1.5 T) at a median of 1 day after complex percutaneous coronary intervention. The average number of stents per patient was 2.2 +/- 1.1, and the average stent length per patient was 37.8 +/- 19.7 mm. In 15 of these patients > or =1 DES was used: paclitaxel DESs in 14 and sirolimus DESs in 1. In the DES group, the average number of stents was 1.75 +/- 1.0 per patient (3 patients received 3 DESs), and average DES length was 36.5 +/- 14.8 mm per patient. No acute thrombosis was recorded, and at 9-month clinical follow-up only 2 patients (4%) developed adverse events (1 target vessel restenosis and 1 nontarget vessel revascularization); these patients were in the non-DES group.