May 19, 2021
Compared with second-generation DES, devices with ultrathin struts are associated with less TLF, driven by reductions in clinically driven TLR, a long-term meta-analysis of multiple RCTs suggests.
The thinner struts have been thought to offer advantages in terms of producing less inflammation, vessel injury, neointimal proliferation, and thrombus formation. The new meta-analysis builds on the findings of a prior meta-analysis showing that ultrathin-strut DES were associated with a lower risk of TLF (composite of cardiac death, MI, or clinically driven TLR) at 1 year compared with conventional second-generation thin-strut DES.
Several additional
large-scale RCTs that have been completed in recent years, with extended follow-up to a mean of 2.5 years, differentiate the newer meta-analysis, which was presented today by Yousif Ahmad, MD (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA), at the EuroPCR 2021 virtual meeting. It was also simultaneously published in the