Optimal perioperative antiplatelet therapy in patients with coronary stents undergoing surgery still remains poorly defined and a matter of debate among cardiologists, surgeons and anaesthesiologists. Surgery represents one of the most common reasons for premature antiplatelet therapy discontinuation, which is associated with a significant increase in mortality and major adverse cardiac events, in particular stent thrombosis. Clinical practice guidelines provide little support with regard to managing antiplatelet therapy in the perioperative phase in the case of patients with non-deferrable surgical interventions and/or high haemorrhagic risk. Moreover, a standard definition of ischaemic and haemorrhagic risk has never been determined. Finally, recommendations shared by cardiologists, surgeons and anaesthesiologists are lacking. The present consensus document provides practical recommendations on the perioperative management of antiplatelet therapy in patients with coronary stents undergoing surgery. Cardiologists, surgeons and anaesthesiologists have contributed equally to its creation. On the basis of clinical and angiographic data, the individual thrombotic risk has been defined. All surgical interventions have been classified according to their inherent haemorrhagic risk. A consensus on the optimal antiplatelet regimen in the perioperative phase has been reached on the basis of the ischaemic and haemorrhagic risk. Aspirin should be continued perioperatively in the majority of surgical operations, whereas dual antiplatelet therapy should not be withdrawn for surgery in the case of low bleeding risk. In selected patients at high risk for both bleeding and ischaemic events, when oral antiplatelet therapy withdrawal is required, perioperative treatment with short-acting intravenous glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (tirofiban or eptifibatide) should be taken into consideration.
In-stent neoatherosclerosis has emerged as a crucial factor in post-stent complications including late in-stent restenosis and very late stent thrombosis. In this study, we investigated the ability of quantitative plaque characteristics from intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) images taken just prior to stent implantation to predict neoatherosclerosis after implantation.
To provide insight on the patients with long lesions that received multiple, overlapping stents by reporting clinical outcomes, together with a detailed angiographic and intravascular ultrasound analysis of the overlap zone.TAXUS VI is a prospective, multicentre, double-blind, trial, specifically designed to assess outcomes of paclitaxel-eluting stents in longer lesions by randomising 446 patients (1:1) between a drug-eluting TAXUS Express2 Moderate Release (MR) and an uncoated Express2 control stent. Multiple overlapping stents were implanted in 124 patients (27.8%) and are the subject of this report. Clinical, angiographic and IVUS outcomes at nine months were compared in the overlap group for patients receiving the TAXUS Express2 MR stent and the uncoated Express2 stent. In the overlap group, mean lesion length was 25.1 mm with a mean stent length of 43.6 mm. At nine months, TVR was reduced by 94% from 25.0% to 1.6% in the TAXUS patients compared with control (p=<0.0001); TLR was reduced by 93% from 23.3% to 1.6% (p=0.0002). Binary restenosis in the stented area was reduced by 89% from 45.5% in the control patients to 4.8% in the TAXUS patients (p<0.0001). There was a trend towards a higher 30-day myocardial infarction rate in the TAXUS group (7.9% vs. 1.6%; p=0.21), but by nine months, MACE was significantly reduced by 62.0%, from 25.0% to 9.5% in favour of the TAXUS patients (p=0.0305). Late acquired incomplete apposition on IVUS was infrequent in either group and was not located in the overlap zone, nor was the finding associated with late MACE. No stent thrombosis occurred in either group.The use of multiple overlapping TAXUS MR stents appears safe and effective in the treatment of long complex coronary artery lesions.
The incidence and mechanisms of acute and late stent malapposition after primary stent implantation in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction remain unclear.The Harmonizing Outcomes with Revascularization and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction (HORIZONS-AMI) trial was a dual-arm, factorial, randomized trial comparing paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) and otherwise equivalent bare metal stents (BMS) in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients. The intravascular ultrasound substudy enrolled 241 patients with 263 native coronary lesions (201 PES, 62 BMS) with baseline and 13-month follow-up imaging. Postintervention acute stent malapposition (ASM) occurred in 34.3% PES- and 40.3% BMS-treated lesions. Of these, 39.1% PES- and 40.0% BMS-treated lesions resolved at follow-up, especially within the stent body (66.7%); complete resolution was accompanied by a reduction in external elastic membrane area. An ASM area >1.2 mm(2) best separated persistent from resolved ASM. At follow-up, a higher frequency of late stent malapposition was detected in PES-treated lesions (46.8%) mainly because of more late acquired stent malapposition (30.8%) compared with BMS-treated lesions. Late acquired stent malapposition area correlated to the decrease of peri-stent plaque in the subset of lesions without positive remodeling and only to change in external elastic membrane in the group with positive remodeling. Independent predictors of late acquired stent malapposition were plaque/thrombus protrusion (odds ratio, 5.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.32 to 13.54) and PES use (odds ratio, 6.32; 95% CI, 2.15 to 18.62).The incidence of ASM was similar in PES- and BMS-treated lesions, but late acquired stent malapposition was more common in PES-treated lesions. The reason for resolved ASM was negative remodeling, with larger ASM areas separating persistent from resolved ASM. Late acquired stent malapposition was due mainly to positive remodeling and plaque/thrombus resolution.URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00433966.
A 42-year-old female was referred for intermittent effort angina. She had low body mass index, no coronary risk factors and an unremarkable past medical history except for a Raynaud's phenomenon. Owing to a normal exercise stress test ( Panel A ), symptoms were initially attributed to anxiety. However, a 24h-EKG monitoring revealed diffuse ST-segment depression during …
We assessed the impact of early infarct-related artery (IRA) recanalisation on the outcomes of patients in the recently conducted, large-scale, multicentre HORIZONS-AMI trial.Of the 3,602 patients enrolled in the HORIZONS-AMI trial, 3,093 patients (85.9%) were treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to a single artery. We analysed one-year outcomes in these patients according to the presence or absence of early IRA patency, defined as Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) 2 or 3 flow in the IRA. Baseline coronary angiography showed early IRA patency in 1,121 patients (36.2%), while 1,972 patients (63.8%) had TIMI 0 or 1 flow. The presence compared with the absence of early IRA patency was associated with better angiographic results after primary PCI with more TIMI 3 flow after PCI (93.2% vs. 82.9%, p<0.0001) and myocardial blush grade 2 or 3 (84.4% vs. 71.1%, p<0.0001). Early IRA patency was associated with lower rates of one-year mortality (2.5% vs. 3.9%, p=0.04) and definite or probable stent thrombosis (2.0% vs. 4.0%, p=0.002). In multivariable analysis, early IRA patency at baseline angiography was an independent predictor of reduced mortality at one year (HR 0.58, 95% CI: 0.36-0.98, p=0.02).Early IRA patency in patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI is associated with better TIMI flow and myocardial blush post PCI and is an independent predictor of lower one-year mortality. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00433966.
