There is still concern about the safety of drug-eluting stents (DES) due to the possibility of late and very late thrombosis. Dual antiplatelet aggregation for a year is recommended for patients receiving DES. The objective of this study was to test the non-inferiority of a new drug-eluting stent in terms of endothelial coverage after 3 months by optical coherence tomography (OCT) compared with a conventional stent after one month. This new device made of cobalt chrome has no polymer and includes drug reservoirs made of a compound of porsirolimus [SIC]

The study included 19 patients who received the new drug-eluting stent and 19 who received BMS and were followed with OCT after one month, three months and one year. There was a 99.7% endothelial coverage with the new drug-eluting stent and 99.5% with BMS (p for non-inferiority <0.0001). 

Conclusion: This study showed that the new drug-eluting stent is non-inferior to a BMS in terms of endothelial coverage and that it is better than a BMS in reducing intimal thickening. Coverage being a strong predictor of thrombosis, it may be safe to administrate dual antiaggregants for only three months.

Francesco Prati
2013-05-22

Original title: Randomized comparison between a novel DES and BMS to assess neointimal coverage by OCT evaluation – The DEMONSTR8 study.