Study: Lower TLR, MACE in Diabetics Treated with Taxus

A Netherlands study comparing two-year outcomes of a series of 708 consecutive diabetic patients (25 percent insulin treated) demonstrated that Taxus paclitaxel drug eluting stents were associated with a more favorable outcome in terms of major adverse cardiac events in a real world diabetic patient population as compared to the Cypher siralimus-eluting stents and bare metal stents. The study was presented Nov. 14 during the scientific sessions of the American Heart Association.

All-cause mortality did not differ significantly between the three groups in the Rapamycin-Eluting Stent Evaluated at Rotterdam Cardiology Hospital (RESEARCH) and Taxus-Stent Evaluated at Rotterdam Cardiology Hospital (T-SEARCH) registries. As compared to BMS, the use of PES — but not SES — was associated with significantly lower rates of both target lesion and target vessel revascularization (TLR and TVR respectively).

Stent thrombosis was more frequent in the SES group (3.9 percent) as compared to the BMS group (0 percent) and PES group (1.2 percent). When correcting for independent predictors of adverse events and differences between the groups, the use of PES was associated with significantly lower rates of both TLR and the composite endpoint of MACE (death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and TVR) as compared to SES.