Objective: To compare the effect of sirolimus-eluting stents to paclitaxel-eluting stents in complex and diffuse coronary lesions.
Methods: 138 consecutive patients with complex and diffuse coronary lesions were enrolled from April 2004 to August 2005; they were implanted with more than 25 mm long sirolimus-eluting stents or paclitaxel-eluting stents. Unsuccessful cases were excluded. All patients received medical treatment according to guideline. Aspirin 300 mg and clopidogrel 75 mg once daily were continually administered for 6 months after the procedure. The patients were followed up after 6 months.
Results: The study population consisted of 138 patients, including 124 men and 14 women. There were 129 (87.8%) C ACC/AHA type lesions. The average reference vessel diameter was (2.91 +/- 0.43) mm. The average lesion length was (36.36 +/- 12.27) mm. The average stent length per lesion was (40.25 +/- 12.79) mm. There was no difference of patient and lesion baseline characteristics between the groups of sirolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting stents. At the end of follow up, in-stent restenosis rate (5.9% vs 17.7%, P = 0.023) and in-segment restenosis rate (9.4% vs 21.0%, P = 0.048) in the group of sirolimus-eluting stents were less than that in the group of paclitaxel-eluting stents. The difference was also seen in in-stent late luminal loss [(0.26 +/- 0.46) mm vs (0.60 +/- 0.66) mm, P = 0.001)] and in-segment late lumens loss [(0.16 +/- 0.52) mm vs (0.45 +/- 0.65) mm, P = 0.003)]. There was no difference between the sirolimus-eluting stents group and paclitaxel-eluting stents group in the incidence of target lesion revascularization (7.1% vs 12.9%, P = 0.223).
Conclusions: In patients with complex and diffuse coronary lesions, the use of the sirolimus-eluting stent was associated with a decrease in the extent of late luminal loss, as compared with use of paclitaxel-eluting stents, suggesting that sirolimus-eluting stent might be more suitable to be used in small vessel.