Background: Although complete coverage of diffuse long coronary lesions has warranted the use of overlapping drug-eluting stents (DESs), the effect of stent overlap with different DESs on the neointimal hyperplasia and whether it would result in dose-related side effects are unknown.
Methods and results: Forty-seven consecutive patients, from June 2003 to August 2004, underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with 2 of the same or different overlapping DESs for diffuse long lesions. Out of the total of 47 patients, a nine-month angiographic examination and IVUS were performed in 40 (85.1%) patients. Of the 47 overlapping DESs utilized, 14 were overlapped using sirolimus- and paclitaxel-eluting stents (S-P group), 13 using two sirolimus-eluting stents (S-S group) and 20 using two paclitaxel-eluting stents (P-P group). In the follow-up, there was no difference between the three groups in the late loss or area of neointimal hyperplasia. All restenoses were noted at non-overlapping sites (2 at the proximal edge of the proximal stent, and 3 at the distal in-stent). There were no stent thromboses documented or aneurysmal formations at the overlapping site in any of the three groups. One late stent malapposition was observed not at an overlapping site, but in the distal single stent area.
Conclusions: In conclusion, compared with using the same overlapping DESs, PCI with different overlapping DESs exhibited similar effects on the suppression of neointimal hyperplasia and did not increase the side effects of the DES.