Background: Although effective coverage of coronary diffuse in-stent restenosis (ISR) lesions has warranted the use of multiple drug-eluting stents, the vessel response to paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) overlap is not fully understood.
Methods and materials: In the TAXUS-V ISR, i.e., comparing PES versus brachytherapy for the treatment of bare-metal ISR, angiographic analyses at 9-month follow-up were available in 184 ISR lesions treated with PES.
Results: In-stent late loss in entire stented segment of multiple PES (n=50) was 0.45+/-0.48 mm, whereas that of single PES (n=134) was 0.3+/-0.47 mm, P=.06. No aneurysm was observed at overlapping PES segments at 9 months. Stent thrombosis up to 9 months was observed in one in each group (single PES, 0.7% vs. multiple PES, 1.8%; P=.47). In a subset of 30 patients, volumetric intravascular ultrasound analysis demonstrated that in-stent net volume obstruction was 12.3+/-12.4 in single PES (n=20) and 14.9+/-9.8 in multiple PES (n=10), P=.60. The changes of vessel and lumen at the overlapping PES segment were similar to those of the adjacent 5-mm segments (Deltaminimum lumen area, mm(2): -1.2+/-1.0, -1.1+/-1.1, -0.8+/-0.9, P=.48; Deltavessel volume, mm(3)/mm: -0.2+/-1.4, 0.1+/-1.7, 0.3+/-1.3, P=.37; proximal, overlap, distal segment, respectively). There was no late incomplete stent apposition at overlapping PES segments.
Conclusions: No in vivo evidence of adverse local vessel response at the site of overlapping PES for the treatment of bare-metal ISR has been demonstrated.