Are Zotarolimus-Eluting Stents Really Noninferior to Everolimus-Eluting Stents?

Only time will tell.

Second-generation drug-eluting stents (DES) are staking their claims to superiority over established DES, but in the recent SORT OUT III trial, a first-generation sirolimus-eluting stent outperformed the novel zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZES). Now, European investigators have compared the ZES with the second-generation everolimus-eluting stent (EES) in an all-comers, multicenter, open-label, randomized, noninferiority, manufacturer-funded trial in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Of the 2292 participants (mean age, 64; 77% men), 66% had at least one off-label criterion for stent placement.

The incidence of the composite endpoint — cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), and clinically indicated target-vessel re…

Reviewing Author

Beat J. Meyer, MD

Disclosures

Leadership positions in professional societiesBern Heart Foundation (President); International Academy of Medicine, Bern, Switzerland (Director)

Beat J. Meyer, MD

Disclosures

Leadership positions in professional societiesBern Heart Foundation (President); International Academy of Medicine, Bern, Switzerland (Director)