High Pressure Coronary Stenting: Efficacy and Safety of Aspirin Versus Coumadin Plus Aspirin Ñ Preliminary Results of a Randomized Study.

The efficacy and safety of treatment after coronary stenting was examined with aspirin alone, 100 mg daily, as compared to coumadin plus aspirin. Data from the first 101 patients, 73 men and 28 women, aged 59.2 +/- 9.3 years, of a prospective randomized study are presented in this preliminary report. Forty-eight patients suffered from one-vessel disease, 32 had two- and 21 three-vessel disease. Indications for stenting were stable angina in 65 patients, unstable angina in 16, threatening myocardial infarction in 4 and restenosis in 16 patients. The stents were implanted by high pressure balloon inflation (14.5 +/- 2.2 atm), 55 of them were Palmaz-Schatz, 31 Micro, 10 Gianturco-Roubin, 2 Wiktor and 3 combined stents. Intravascular ultrasonographic guidance was not performed. The primary end point was defined as the absence of the following events: death, subacute coronary artery closure, acute myocardial infarction, emergency coronary bypass surgery, repeated PTCA, major bleeding or arterio-venous aneurysms needing transfusion or surgery. Eighty out of 101 patients (79.2%), 41 out of 47 (87.2%) in the aspirin group and 39 out of 54 (72.2%) in the coumadin plus aspirin group (p = 0.06) were free of events during hospitalization (9.5 +/- 5.7 days, median: 8 days). Forty-five out of 47 patients (95.7%) in the aspirin and 51 out of 54 (94.4%) in the coumadin plus aspirin group (p = 0.8) were without subacute closure. One death occurred in the aspirin group due to stent abscess two weeks after an angiographically successful stent recanalization. All 7 arterio-venous aneurysms with surgical interventions occurred in the coumadin group (p = 0.01). No emergency bypass surgery had to be performed. If these preliminary results will be confirmed by the final analysis, the combination of coumadin with aspirin does not show more efficacy or safety as compared with aspirin alone in the treatment after high-pressure coronary stenting during the hospital stay.