Rapid adoption of drug-eluting stents: Clinical practices and outcomes from the early drug-eluting stent era

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the early drug-eluting stent (DES) era, characterized by widespread device use. Background: Contemporary clinical practice incorporating more selective DES use can only be assessed by understanding the early DES era. Methods: All patients receiving DES during the first 3 waves of the Evaluation of Drug Eluting Stents and Ischemic Events (EVENT) Registry (2004-2006) were evaluated. The primary end point was a composite of death, myocardial infarction (MI), and urgent revascularization at discharge and death, MI, or target lesion revascularization (TLR) at 1 year. The composite end point at each time point was compared across waves. Multivariable logistic regression was used for in-hospital outcomes and multivariable Cox regression was used for 1-year end points. Results: Ninety-two percent of EVENT patients received at least one DES. One third of patients were treated for Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS) (33.8%), and later waves included lower lesion complexity. Across waves there was more frequent clopidogrel loading, a decrease in heparin and an increase in bivalirudin use (all P < .01). The primary composite end point of in-hospital death, MI or urgent revascularization occurred in 7.2% of patients, and did not differ across waves. Despite remarkably high levels of routine DES usage, the composite end point of death, MI, or TLR at 1 year averaged 13.5% and did not differ across waves. After adjustment, no statistically significant effect of wave on composite bleeding (P = .068) as well as in-hospital TLR (P = .053) was noted. At 1 year, wave was associated with a lower likelihood of TLR in the adjusted model (HR 0.81, P = .03). Conclusions: The high-adoption DES era was associated with favorable outcomes, decreasing bleeding rates and changes in antithrombotic approach.