Abstract

Objective: The intra-coronary stents provided great benefit after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA); however, high in-stent restenosis rates, even up to 25-30%, is the the main concern. Cytotoxic drug-eluting stents were developed to overcome this challenge. Whereas, they interfered vessel healing and endothelization process which led to increased risk of stent thrombosis. A bioinert molecule, polyzene-F(PzF), was applied to the surface of a new generation stent to provide anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombogenic property. We aimed to compare the sirolimus-eluting stent with PzF-coated cobalt-chrome stent in terms of early inflammatory response and long-term major adverse cardiac events (MACE) rates.
Methods: Stable coronary artery disease patients treated with PzF-coated cobalt-chrome stent formed the 1^st group (n=19), and those received sirolimus-eluting stent (n=13) formed the 2^nd group. Serum hsCRP and IL-6 levels were measured before percutaneous coronary intervention (pre-PCI), and after 1^st and 10^th days (post-PCI 1, and post-PCI 10, respectively) of PCI. The patients were followed-up to 1 year in terms of MACE experience.
Results: The study groups were comparable in terms of pre-PCI, post-PCI-1 and post-PCI-10 serum hsCRP and IL-6 levels. Four of 19 patients (21%) in the 1^st group and 1 of 13 patients (8%) in the 2^nd group experienced MACE during 1-year follow-up; whereas this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.26).
Conclusion: Although, the PzF-coated cobalt-chrome stent was claimed to have lower anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombogenic properties, we showed similar inflammatory response and long-term MACE rates compared to sirolimus-eluting stent. Prospective, randomized, large scale studies are needed to clarify this issue.