18-MONTH DATA FROM SORT OUT III TRIAL FAVOURS SIROLIMUS-ELUTING STENTS
In a head-to-head 18-month comparison, researchers found that implantation with the Endeavor stent led to more cases of heart attack, death and target vessel revascularization than the CYPHER® stent, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 59th annual scientific session in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and published in the Lancet on Monday, 15th March 2010.
The trial was conducted by researchers from the university hospitals in Denmark under the auspices of the Danish Organization for Randomized Trials with Clinical Outcomes (SORT OUT). The SORT OUT III trial randomized 2,332 patients with coronary artery disease to one of two drug-eluting stents, the Endeavor (1,162 patients) or the CYPHER® (1,170 patients) stent.
The researchers found that after 18 months, significantly more patients treated with the Endeavor experienced the primary composite endpoint of cardiac death, heart attack or target vessel revascularization than patients with the CYPHER® stent, at 9.7 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. Patients with the Endeavor also experienced the secondary endpoints more frequently than those with the CYPHER®, including heart attack (2.1 percent versus 0.9 percent); target vessel revascularization (7.9 percent versus 3.3 percent); and all-cause death (4.4 percent versus 2.7 percent).
“Based on the Endeavor III trial findings showing that the Endeavor stent had a more uniform layer of neointimal coverage, we and many others believed it would provide strong protection against general stent thrombosis and heart attack, but we found there is a high risk of early stent thrombosis and early heart attack in the Endeavor, which may be related to the faster elution of the drug,” said Dr. Michael Maeng, Ph.D., of the Department of Cardiology at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark and the lead researcher. Dr Maeng added: “If you have to compare the two stents, the CYPHER® stent is a better stent.”