BACKGROUND: Drug-eluting stents are a great advance in the treatment of coronary disease. However, their use in patients with acute coronary syndromes has been the subject of intense scientific debate. METHODS: 910 consecutive patients treated with at least one drug-eluting stent between May 2002 and September 2006 were enrolled in the present analysis. The patients were assigned to 2 groups according to their clinical condition at the time of admission: 1) Stable group (635 patients with stable angina) and 2) Acute group (275 patients with NSTEMI). We analyzed the clinical and angiographic characteristics as well as the occurrence of late adverse events. RESULTS: The clinical characteristics of the groups were similar, except for the highest incidence of smokers in the acute group and previous percutaneous intervention in the stable group. After 588 days (median follow-up period), the stable and acute groups had similar rates of re-infarction (2.8 vs. 5.0%; p = 0.1), target vessel revascularization (6.0 vs. 7.7%; p = 0.4), death (4.5 vs. 6.5%; p = 0.2) and composite major adverse cardiac events (9.9 vs. 11.9%; p = 0.4), respectively. However, the occurrence of in-stent thrombosis was more frequent in patients with acute coronary diseases (1.4 vs. 4.4%; p = 0.02), mainly due to the occurrence of thrombosis within the first year after implantation (1.1 vs. 4.4%; p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Drug-eluting stents have shown a good safety profile in patients with acute coronary syndromes compared to those with chronic coronary disease, despite the higher incidence of late in-stent thrombosis.
Drug-eluting stents; Acute coronary syndrome; Thrombosis; Major adverse cardiac event
