A comparison of use of the first two commercially available drug-releasing coronary stents (for the medications sirolimus and paclitaxel) among patients in "everyday clinical practice" indicates no significant differences for outcomes such as heart attack or cardiac death, according to a study in the January 30 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Drug-releasing (eluting) stents are used for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) to help reduce the rate of re-narrowing of a coronary artery, according to background information in the article. Approval of drug-eluting coronary stents was based on results of relatively small trials of selected patients; however, in routine practice, stents are used in a broader spectrum of patients.
Anders M. Galløe, M.D., of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues compared the efficacy and safety of sirolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting stents in a study designed to reflect everyday clinical practice. The SORT OUT II trial included 2,098 men and women treated with PCI and randomized to receive either sirolimus-eluting (n = 1,065) or paclitaxel-eluting (n = 1,033) stents at five university hospitals in Denmark. The patients were initially treated for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack), non-STEMI or unstable angina pectoris, and stable angina.