Safety and efficacy of low-dose paclitaxel utilizing the cobra-P drug-eluting stent system with a novel biodegradable coating in de novo coronary lesions: the PLUS-ONE first-in-man study.

BACKGROUND: The Cobra-P drug-eluting stent (DES) system consists of cobalt chromium alloy with bio-absorbable siloxane sol-gel matrix coating that elutes low dose paclitaxel within 6 months. The aim of this first-in-man trial was to evaluate the safety and performance of 2 doses of the Cobra-P DES. METHODS: A total of 60 lesions (54 patients) were sequentially assigned to 2 different paclitaxel doses: group A (3.7 µg/18mm, n=30) or group B (8 µg/18mm, n=30). The primary endpoint was MACE at 4 months defined as cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and target lesion revascularization. RESULTS: Patient and lesion characteristics were matched between the 2 groups except for male sex. MACE at 4 months was 3.3% and 0% respectively (P=1.000) and at 1-year follow-up remained unchanged. In-stent late loss at 4 months was similar in both groups (0.36 ± 0.30mm and 0.34 ± 0.20mm P=.773). CONCLUSIONS: In this FIM study, implantation of the Cobra-P low dose paclitaxel-eluting stent with a bioabsorbable sol-gel coating was proven to be feasible and safe. Moderate neointimal proliferation was observed as well as an acceptable MACE rate up to 1 year.

Intravascular ultrasound comparison of small coronary lesions between novel guidewire-based sirolimus-eluting stents and conventional sirolimus-eluting stents

The Sparrow stent system (Biosensors International) consists of a self-expanding, ultra-thin nitinol stent mounted within a 0.014½ guidewire designed for small or tortuous coronary lesions. We compared the intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) findings between the novel self-expanding sirolimus-eluting stent (Sparrow-SES) and a conventional balloon-expandable sirolimus-eluting stent (Cypher-SES) in patients with small coronary disease. Methods. We examined 14 lesions treated with the Sparrow-SES from CARE II, compared with 22 small vessel lesions treated with Cypher-SES. IVUS examination was performed post-procedure and 8 months later. Volumetric data were standardized by length as volume index (VI; mm3/mm). Results. While baseline stent VI trended smaller in Sparrow-SES, follow-up stent VI became similar between the 2 groups due to a significant increase of stent VI in self-expanding Sparrow-SES during the follow-up period. At 8 months, Sparrow-SES showed greater neointima than Cypher-SES (0.8 ± 0.6 mm3/mm vs 0.2 ± 0.2 mm3/mm; P<.001). However, the decrease in lumen VI was only 0.3 ± 0.7 mm3/mm in Sparrow-SES, as compared to 0.1 ± 0.3 mm3/mm in Cypher-SES (P=.259), since the late loss due to neointimal hyperplasia was partly counterbalanced by the chronic stent expansion in Sparrow-SES. Conclusion. While 8-month follow-up of Sparrow-SES revealed greater amounts of neointimal hyperplasia compared with conventional Cypher-SES, chronic stent expansion preserved the lumen by increasing stent volume. This novel, guidewire-based, self-expanding stent system designed to be delivered through complex anatomies may be useful to treat patients with small-caliber coronary lesions by offering sufficient lumen preservation at follow-up.

Intravascular ultrasound results from the NEVO ResElution-I trial: a randomized, blinded comparison of sirolimus-eluting NEVO stentswith paclitaxel-eluting TAXUS Liberté stents in de novo native coronaryartery lesions

Background—The NEVO sirolimus-eluting stent (NEVO SES) is a novel cobalt-chromium stent combining sirolimusrelease from reservoirs with bioabsorbable polymer to reduce spatial and temporal polymer exposure. The aim of thisstudy was to assess the arterial response to the NEVO SES in a randomized, blinded comparison versus thesurface-coated TAXUS Liberte paclitaxel-eluting stent (TAXUS Liberte´ PES) in human native coronary lesions usingintravascular ultrasound (IVUS).Methods and Results—The NEVO ResElution-I IVUS substudy enrolled 100 patients (1:1 randomization). In addition tostandard IVUS variables, uniformity of neointimal distribution within stents was evaluated in 3 dimensions bycomputing mean neointimal thickness within 12 equally spaced radial sectors on every 1-mm cross section along thestented segment. The NEVO SES showed significantly less neointimal proliferation (neointimal obstruction: 5.5 11.0%versus 11.5 9.7%, P 0.02), resulting in less late lumen area loss and smaller maximum cross-sectional narrowing at6 months. The absolute variability of neointima distribution, assessed by the standard deviation of neointimal thicknesswithin each stent, was significantly reduced with the NEVO SES compared with the TAXUS Liberte´PES(0.04 0.04 mm versus 0.10 0.07 mm, P 0.0001). TAXUS Liberte´ PES showed significantly greater positivevessel remodeling than the NEVO SES ( vessel volume index: 1.30 1.36 mm3/mm versus 0.36 0.63 mm3/mm,respectively, P 0.003).Conclusions—The NEVO SES with focal release of sirolimus from reservoirs achieved significantly greater and moreconsistent suppression of neointimal hyperplasia than the surface-coated TAXUS Liberte´ PES. This was associated withless positive remodeling and no increased morphological or morphometric abnormalities surrounding the stent or at thestent margins.