BACKGROUND: Primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PPCI) with drug-eluting stents have incipient and still controversial results in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To compare PPCI with drug-eluting and bare-metal stents in Brazil during the period 2006-2007. METHOD: All consecutive patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with PPCI with drug-eluting or bare-metal stents, reported to the database of the National Center for Cardiovascular Interventions (CENIC) from January 2006 to December 2007, were compared as to their clinical and angiographic characteristics and in-hospital results. RESULTS: 4,876 patients treated with PPCI were analyzed; 4,674 (95.9%) used bare-metal stents and 202 (4.1%), drug-eluting stents. Procedural success rates were higher with drug-eluting stents (97.5% vs. 93.5%; p = 0.02). There were no differences in the rates of stent thrombosis (1.5% vs. 1.3%; p = 0.869) or overall complications (1.0% vs. 2.8%; p = 0.119). Mortality tended to be lower with drug-eluting stents (2.0% vs. 4.4%; p = 0.098). CONCLUSION: In Brazil, PPCI with drug-eluting stents has a low rate of thrombosis and in-hospital mortality, compared to that observed for bare-metal stents in a relatively selected patient population, in which the referral for these stents was certainly influenced by multiple factors, which affected comparative results.
Myocardial infarction; Angioplasty, transluminal, percutaneous coronary; Angioplasty; Drug-eluting stents; Stents
