Aims: To investigate the clinical impact of the following observations in the randomized SPIRIT II and III trials: an incremental increase in in-stent neointima between 1 and 2 years with the everolimus-eluting stent (EES) but not with the paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) in SPIRIT II; a tendency of lower stent thrombosis in EES than in PES among those who first discontinued a thienopyridine after 6 months.
Methods and results: A pooled analysis was performed using the 2-year clinical data from the SPIRIT II and III trials randomizing a total of 1302 patients with de novo coronary artery lesions either to EES or to PES. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were comparable between two trials. Major adverse cardiac event (MACE) was defined as cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or ischaemia-driven target lesion revascularization (TLR). At 2 years, MACE rates were 7.1% in EES vs. 12.3% in PES, respectively (log-rank P = 0.0014), without late increase in TLR. Among those who first discontinued a thienopyridine after 6 months, Academic Research Consortium (ARC) definite or probable stent thrombosis was 1.1% in EES vs. 1.3% in PES (P = 1.00).
Conclusion: The benefits of EES in reducing TLR were robust between 6 months and 2 years. No significant difference in the thrombosis rate among those who first stopped a thienopyridine after 6 months was observed.