Background: Although it is widely believed that patients with diabetes mellitus obtain the greatest benefit from drug-eluting stents, convincing evidence on long-term efficacy and safety of these stents is lacking.
Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of individual patient data from four randomized trials including 583 patients comparing sirolimus eluting with bare metal stents (median follow-up of 4.2 years). These were the only specific trials reporting on drug-eluting stents in diabetic patients. The primary endpoint was the incidence of major cardiac events. The secondary endpoints were all-cause mortality and myocardial infarction as a safety endpoint and target lesion re-intervention as an efficacy endpoint. Stent thrombosis was also evaluated.
Results: There was a significant reduction in the overall hazard of major cardiac events (hazard ratio [HR] 0.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.36-0.63, P < 0.001) with sirolimus-eluting stents. This was mostly due to a significant reduction in the overall hazard of repeat revascularization (HR 0.27, 95% CI 0.18-0.41, P < 0.001) in favor of sirolimus-eluting stents. However, the overall hazard of death (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.59-1.41, P = 0.68) as well as death or myocardial infarction (HR 0.77, 95% CI 0.54-1.09, P = 0.14) were not significantly different between the groups. No significant differences were observed regarding stent thrombosis (HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.15-1.69, P = 0.26).
Conclusions: Sirolimus-eluting stents are highly effective in reducing the risk for major cardiac events and safe in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease.