Clinical outcome after successful coronary angioplasty: Impact of intracoronary stent implantation

The clinical outcome after successful conventional coronary balloon angiopl asty is compared with that of stent implantation after 30 days and 12 month s. The study took place at the Divisions of Cardiology and Thoracic Radiolo gy, Norrland University Hospital, Umea, a referral centre for northern Swed en. The first 100 consecutive patients with stable or unstable angina under going successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in 1 994 and the first 100 consecutive patients undergoing successful coronary s tent implantation in 1995 were included. The cardiac endpoints studied were death, myocardial infarction, need for repeat PTCA or coronary artery bypa ss grafting (CABG). Significantly mon adverse cardiac events were observed in the PTCA group compared with the stent group. Event-free 12 months' foll ow-up (no deaths, myocardial infarction or re-intervention) was 64% in the PTCA group and 86% in the stent group (p < 0.005). The main explanation for the observed difference was a reduction in the need for a repeat PTCA (7 v s 18, p < 0.05) or CABG (4 vs 12, p < 0.05) in the stent group. Patients wi th stable or unstable angina who can be treated with a stent have a better clinical outcome than those treated with coronary balloon angioplasty only.