Research In Brief

AHRQ DES study: "Largest ever real-world study" comparing drug-eluting (DES) and bare metal stents (BMS) demonstrates the former were associated with significantly lower rates of death in Medicare patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concludes in Feb. 10 research report. The study included 217,675 DES patients and 45,025 BMS patients. At 30 months, unadjusted rates of death were 12.9% for DES and 17.9% for BMS. Rates of myocardial infarction and revascularization were, respectively, 7.3 and 23.0 per 100 patients in the DES group, and 10.0 and 24.5 per 100 patients in the BMS arm. DES patients also had lower rates of adjusted death and MI, with minimal difference in revascularization, stroke or bleeding