Early outcome of treatment of ostial de novo left anterior descending coronary artery lesions with drug-eluting stents

We investigated early and mid-term clinical and angiographic outcomes of patients who had de novo ostial left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) lesions that were treated with drug-eluting stents (DESs) or bare metal stents (BMSs). We identified 43 consecutive patients who underwent percutaneous intervention for isolated de novo ostial LAD lesions with implantation of DESs and compared them with 43 patients who had similar lesions that were treated with BMSs. All stents were successfully implanted. There were no significant differences with respect to major in-hospital complications between the 2 groups. One patient in the BMS group died during hospitalization. Non-Q-wave myocardial infarction occurred in 2 patients (4.7%) in the DES and in 1 patient (2.3%) in the BMS group. At 9-month follow-up, 3 patients (7%) in the DES group and 11 (25.6%) in the BMS group underwent target lesion revascularization (p = 0.038); major adverse cardiac events were less frequent in the DES than in the BMS group (9.3% vs 32.6%, p = 0.015). Angiographic follow-up was available in 82% of patients in the DES group and 75% of those in the BMS group (p = 0.6) and showed lower binary restenotic rates (5.7% vs 31.3%, p = 0.01) and smaller late loss (0.30 +/- 0.81 vs 1.23 +/- 0.93 mm, p = 0.0001) in the DES group. In conclusion, DES implantation in de novo ostial LAD lesions appears safe and effective and is associated with a significant decrease in restenotic rates compared with historical experience with BMSs.