Long-term benefits and risks of drug-eluting compared to bare-metal stents in patients with versus without chronic kidney disease.

Aims: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with worse outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). How CKD influences the benefit-risk balance of drug-eluting stents (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS) is less known.
Methods and Results: In the multicentre BASKET-PROVE trial, 2314 patients in need of large coronary stenting (≥ 3.0mm) were randomised 2:1 to DES or BMS. In an a priori planned secondary analysis, outcomes were evaluated according to renal function defined by estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR; normal: eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2); CKD: eGFR<60 ml/min/1.73 m(2)). The primary endpoint was the first major adverse cardiac event (MACE: cardiac death, myocardial infarction, target vessel revascularisation) up to 2 years. A Cox proportional-hazard model was used to evaluate adjusted relative risks (hazard rates, HRs) for BMS versus DES. The interaction of stent type and renal function was tested. CKD patients (189 (11.2%)/1681 with such data) had a 2-year MACE rate of 8.5% versus 7.4% in those without CKD [HR 0.98 (0.56-1.72), p=0.95] with cardiac mortalities of 5.3% and 1.5%, respectively (p=0.002, non-significant after baseline adjustments). The MACE rate was lower in CKD patients with DES than with BMS [4.9% versus 15.2%, p=0.017, HR 0.29(0.10-0.80)] as was the MACE rate in patients without CKD [5.6% with DES versus 11.1% with BMS, p<0.0001, HR 0.51(0.35-0.75)]. No significant interaction between stent type and renal function was found.
Conclusions: This analysis of patients needing large coronary artery stenting confirms the increased mortality of CKD patients and documents a long-term benefit of DES compared to BMS irrespective of kidney function.
(Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)