Two-year Outcome of Turkish Patients Treated with Zotarolimus Versus Paclitaxel Eluting Stents in an Unselected Population with Coronary Artery Disease in the Real World: A Prospective Non-randomized Registry in Southern Turkey

Background: Our purpose was to investigate the clinical outcomes of Zotarolimus- and Paclitaxel-eluting stents in Turkish patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). In general, the outcome of drug-eluting stent (DES) placement has a proven efficacy in randomized trials. However, the difference in efficacy between the Zotarolimus and Paclitaxel-eluting stents in unselected Turkish patients is controversial. Therefore, we investigated the clinical outcomes of these two drug-eluting stents in the real-world. Methods: We created a registry and prospectively analyzed data on a consecutive series of all patients who presented to our institution with symptomatic coronary artery disease between February 2005 and March 2007 and who were treated with the zotarolimus- or the paclitaxel-eluting stent. The follow-up period was approximately two years. The primary end-point was major cardiac events, and the secondary end-point was definite stent thrombosis. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects, and the study protocol was approved by the local ethical committee. Results: In total, 217 patients were treated with either the zotarolimus-eluting stent (n = 116) or the paclitaxel-eluting stent (n = 101). The lesions in the 2 arms of the study were treated similarly by conventional technique. At 24-month follow-up the paclitaxel-eluting stent group showed significantly higher non-Q wave myocardial infarction (2.6% vs 5.9%, p: 0.02), Q wave myocardial infarction (1.7% vs 5.9%, p: 0.049), coronary artery binding graft surgery (2.6% vs 6.9%, p: 0.002), and late stent thrombosis (1.7% vs 3.9%, p: 0.046). Conclusions: Zotarolimus-eluting stents demonstrated better clinical outcomes than Paclitaxel-eluting stents in a daily routine practice of coronary intervention in an unselected Turkish population.