Efficacy and safety of drug-eluting stents in elderly patients: A meta-analysis of randomized trials

Background: Current guidelines recommend newer generation drug-eluting stents (DES) over bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients with ischemic heart disease. However, there is no age-specific recommendation in elderly patients.Methods: Meta-analysis was performed of 6 randomized studies enrolling 5,042 elderly patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stent implantation (DES, n = 2,579; BMS, n = 2,463).Results: Combined data indicated a significant reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) with use of DES (odds ratio [OR] 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.44–0.71, p < 0.001). Moreover, use of DES was associated with a significantly lower incidence of myocardial infarction (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.36–0.81, p = 0.003) and repeat revascularization (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.31–0.62, p < 0.001), was compared to that with the use of BMS. Stent thrombosis and bleeding complication rates were not significantly different between groups. In a subgroup meta-analysis, short duration (1 or 6 months) dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) was associated with a significantly lower MACE rate (OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.34–0.80; p = 0.003) in elderly patients who underwent PCI with everolimuseluting stent implantation, compared with that using long duration DAPT.Conclusions: This meta-analysis provides clinically relevant evidence that DES rather than BMS should be selected for elderly patients

Evaluation with in vivo optical coherence tomography and histology of the vascular effects of the everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold at two years following implantation in a healthy porcine coronary artery model: implications of pilot results for future pre-clinical studies

To quantify with in vivo OCT and histology, the device/vessel interaction after implantation of the bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS). We evaluated the area and thickness of the strut voids previously occupied by the polymeric struts, and the neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) area covering the endoluminal surface of the strut voids (NIHEV), as well as the NIH area occupying the space between the strut voids (NIHBV), in healthy porcine coronary arteries at 2, 3 and 4 years after implantation of the device. Twenty-two polymeric BVS were implanted in the coronary arteries of 11 healthy Yucatan minipigs that underwent OCT at 2, 3 and 4 years after implantation, immediately followed by euthanasia. The areas and thicknesses of 60 corresponding strut voids previously occupied by the polymeric struts and the size of 60 corresponding NIHEV and 49 NIHBV were evaluated with both OCT and histology by 2 independent observers, using a single quantitative analysis software for both techniques. At 3 and 4 years after implantation, the strut voids were no longer detectable by OCT or histology due to complete polymer resorption. However, analysis performed at 2 years still provided clear delineation of these structures, by both techniques. The median [ranges] areas of these strut voids were 0.04 [0.03–0.16] and 0.02 [0.01–0.07] mm2 by histology and OCT, respectively. The mean (±SD) thickness by histology and OCT was 220 ± 40 and 120 ± 20 μm, respectively. The median [ranges] NIHEV by histology and OCT was 0.07 [0.04–0.20] and 0.03 [0.01–0.08] mm2, while the mean (±SD) NIHBV by histology and OCT was 0.13 ± 0.07 and 0.10 ± 0.06 mm2. Our study indicates that in vivo OCT of the BVS provides correlated measurements of the same order of magnitude as histomorphometry, and is reproducible for the evaluation of certain vascular and device-related characteristics. However, histology systematically gives larger values for all the measured structures compared to OCT, at 2 years post implantation

IVUS-based imaging modalities for tissue characterization: similarities and differences

Gray-scale intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is the modality that has been established as the golden standard for in vivo imaging of the vessel wall of the coronary arteries. The use of IVUS in clinical practice is an important diagnostic tool used for quantitative assessment of coronary artery disease. This has made IVUS the de-facto invasive imaging method to evaluate new interventional therapies such as new stent designs and for atherosclerosis progression-regression studies. However, the gray-scale representation of the coronary vessel wall and plaque morphology in combination with the limited resolution of the current IVUS catheters makes it difficult, if not impossible, to identify qualitatively (e.g. visually) the plaque morphology similar as that of histopathology, the golden standard to characterize and quantify coronary plaque tissue components. Meanwhile, this limitation has been partially overcome by new innovative IVUS-based post-processing methods such as: virtual histology IVUS (VH-IVUS, Volcano Therapeutics, Rancho Cordova, CA, USA), iMAP-IVUS (Bostoc Scientific, Santa Clara, CA, USA), Integrated Backscatter IVUS (IB-IVUS) and Automated Differential Echogenicity (ADE)

Comparison of intravascular ultrasound guided versus angiography guided drug eluting stent implantation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) can be a useful tool during drug-eluting stents (DES) implantation as it allows accurate assessment of lesion severity and optimal treatment planning. However, numerous reports have shown that IVUS guided percutaneous coronary intervention is not associated with improved clinical outcomes, especially in non-complex patients and lesions. METHODS: We searched the literature in Medline, the Cochrane Library, and other internet sources to identify studies that compare clinical outcomes between IVUS-guided and angiography-guided DES implantation. Random-effects model was used to assess treatment effect. RESULTS: Twenty eligible studies with a total of 29,068 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The use of IVUS was associated with significant reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, odds ratios [OR] 0.77, 95 % confidence intervals [CI] 0.71-0.83, P < 0.001), death (OR 0.62, 95 % CI 0.54-0.71, p < 0.001), and stent thrombosis (OR 0.59, 95 % CI: 0.47-0.73, P < 0.001). The benefit was also seen in the repeated analysis of matched and randomized studies. In stratified analysis, IVUS guidance appeared to be beneficial not only in patients with complex lesions or acute coronary syndromes (ACS) but also patients with mixed lesions or presentations (MACE: OR 0.69, 95 % CI: 0.60-0.79, p < 0.001, OR 0.81, 95 % CI 0.74-0.90, p < 0.001, respectively). By employing meta-regression analysis, the benefit of IVUS is significantly pronounced in patients with complex lesions or ACS with respect to death (p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: IVUS guidance was associated with improved clinical outcomes, especially in patients with complex lesions admitted with ACS. Large, randomized clinical trials are warranted to identify populations and lesion characteristics where IVUS guidance would be associated with better outcomes

Assessment of coronary atherosclerosis by IVUS and IVUS-based imaging modalities: progression and regression studies, tissue composition and beyond

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of mortality, morbidity and disability in the developed world, predominantly affecting the adult population. In the early 1990s coronary heart disease (CHD) was established as affecting one in two men and one in three women by the age of forty. Despite the dramatic progress in the field of cardiovascular medicine in terms of diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, modest improvements have only been achieved when the reduction of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity indices are assessed. To better understand coronary atherosclerosis, new imaging modalities have been introduced. These novel imaging modalities have been used in two ways: (1) for the characterization of plaque types; (2) for the assessment of the progression and regression of tissue types. These two aspects will be discussed in this review