Late clinical outcomes of diabetic patients treated with sirolimus or everolimus drug-eluting stents: an analysis of the DESIRE registry

Background

Despite the better clinical performance of second-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) when compared to first-generation DES in controlled trials, mainly due to reduction in thrombosis rate, it remains unclear whether this benefit extends to diabetic patients treated in the daily practice. We sought to compare the clinical outcomes of unselected diabetic patients treated with either sirolimus eluting stents - SES (first-generation DES) or everolimus-eluting stents - EES (second-generation DES).

Methods

Between January 2007 and October 2014 a total of 798 diabetic patients were treated with SES (n = 414) and EES (n = 384). Long-term clinical follow-up was achieved in 99,4% of the population and the groups were compared regarding the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and stent thrombosis.

Results

In both cohorts age was similar, and most patients were male. Stable coronary disease was the most frequent clinical presentation. The number of treated vessels (1.50 ± 0.62 vs. 1.52 ± 0.72; p = 0.88) and the total stent length (36.1 ± 20.4 vs. 37.7 ± 22.2 mm; p = 0.32) were similar between groups. Patients treated with EES showed lower rates of MACE (15% vs. 6.8%, p < 0.001), mainly due to a lower cardiac death (5.3% vs. 1.3%, p < 0.001). There was also less definitive/ probable thrombosis with the second generation DES (3.4% vs. 0.5%, p = 0.004).

Conclusions

In this single center experience, the use of EES was associated with reduced cardiac death and stent thrombosis. This benefit was mostly observed in the long-term follow-up.