Early healing assessment with optical coherence tomography of everolimus-eluting stents with bioabsorbable polymer (synergy™) at 3 and 6 months after implantation

Objectives In this study we sought to evaluate coverage and apposition of Synergy™ stent at 3 and 6 months after implantation. Background The Pt-Cr everolimus-eluting stent with abluminal bioabsorbable polymer (Synergy™) is a new generation drug-eluting stent with features potentially favoring an early healing process which could make safe a shorter period of dual antiplatelet-therapy treatment. Methods Prospective, two-centers study enrolling patients with similar lesions treated with Synergy™ stents undergoing examination with OCT at 3 and 6 months in the respective centers. Blinded analysis was done at a core lab. Co-primary endpoints were proportion of struts with coverage and with apposition at 3 and 6 months. Results Finally, 22 patients (30 stents) in the 3 months group and 20 patients (30 stents) in the 6 months group were included. There were no significant differences between groups regarding clinical, angiographic measurements, and procedural data. The rate of strut coverage was 94.5% at 3 months and 96.6% at 6 months (P < 0.001), the rates of apposition were 93.8% and 96.2%, respectively, (P < 0.001), the proportion of uncovered but apposed struts was 2.5% and 1.9% (P = 0.03) and the proportion of uncovered and malapposed struts was 3% and 1.8%, respectively (P < 0.001). The maximal area of malapposition related with uncovered struts was 0.43 ± 0.4 mm2 at 3 months and 0.14 ± 0.2 mm2 at 6 months (P = 0.001). Conclusions The everolimus-eluting stent with absorbable polymer, Synergy™, is associated to a high degree of intimal coverage and apposition at 3 months after implantation with additional increase at 6 months. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.