美发现不同药物洗脱支架的治疗效果几乎没有差别

 
一项研究发现：当前市场上销售的两种药物洗脱冠状动脉支架“几乎完全一样”。在2005年10月华盛顿举行的导管心血管治疗学年度会议上报道了这些研究结果。

这两种药物洗脱支架是波士顿科学公司(Natick, MA, USA)的Taxus和Cordis集团(Miami Lakes, FL, USA)的Cypher。设计药物洗脱支架是希望其在防止由于血管重建导致冠状动脉阻塞复发的性能，优于裸露金属支架。

这项研究是以“支架登记注册处”(Stent Registry)的研究结果得出的，这是一家三家北卡罗莱纳州健康保健系统的合作机构，收集了多个美国临床中心的资料和一项为期9个月的普通患者随访研究的结果。这与早些时候的临床试验结果形成了对比，这些早期侧重于精心筛选过并排除了高危病例的人群。这项新研究结果提示两种药物洗脱支架的预后在下列考察指标是相同的：目标血管的血管再形成(TVR)和重要不良心脏事件(MACE)，例如心肌梗塞、脑卒中、死亡、继发介入治疗。

这些研究结果是由来自Carolinas医学中心(Charlotte, NC, USA)Carolinas心脏研究所的Charles Simonton医生报道的。他说：“这种类型的研究对冠状动脉医学有着重要的意义。发起研究的研究机构将在全国范围内拥有领导地位，因为这项十分及时的研究提升了冠状动脉治疗的质量。确保了患者能够从这项新研究中及时获得益处。”

Drug-Eluting Stents Found Equal
 
A comprehensive study has found that the two drug-eluting coronary stents currently being marketed are “virtually identical.” The finding was reported at the annual meeting of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics in Washington (DC, USA) in October 2005.

The two drug-eluting stents are Taxus, from Boston Scientific (Natick, MA, USA), and Cypher, from Cordis Corp. (Miami Lakes, FL, USA). Drug-eluting stents are designed to outperform bare-metal stents in preventing the recurrence of blockage in coronary arteries repaired by angioplasty.

The study was based on findings from the Stent Registry, a partnership of three North Carolina (USA) healthcare systems that gather data from multiple U.S. sites and include a nine-month follow-up of patients based on a profile of the general populace. This is in contrast to earlier trials that focused on patient populations carefully screened to exclude high-risk cases. The new findings showed that the two drug-eluting stents had the same outcomes for target vessel re-vascularization (TVR) and for major adverse cardiac events (MACE), such as myocardial infarction, stroke, or death, following interventional treatment.

The findings were reported by Dr. Charles Simonton, of the Carolinas Heart Institute at Carolinas Medical Center (Charlotte, NC, USA). “This type of study has significant implications for coronary medicine,” he observed. “The sponsoring institutions are to be commended for taking a national leadership role in this timely effort to enhance the quality of coronary care. It ensures that their patients are among the first to benefit from new research.”