Three-year clinical outcome of patients with bifurcation treatment with second-generation Resolute and Xience V stents in the randomized TWENTE trial

Background Only limited data from large randomized clinical trials have been published on the long-term performance of second-generation drug-eluting stents in bifurcation lesions. Methods We investigated in patients in the randomized TWENTE trial the long-term safety and efficacy of treating bifurcation lesions with 2 widely applied second-generation drug-eluting stents, the zotarolimus-eluting Resolute stent (Medtronic Inc, Santa Rosa, CA) and the everolimus-eluting Xience V stent (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA). Three-year follow-up was available in 99.3%. Patients were categorized into treatment for ≥1 bifurcation lesion versus treatment for nonbifurcation lesions only. Results Among the 1,391 patients of the TWENTE trial, 362 (26%) were treated for bifurcation lesions. At 3-year follow-up, target-vessel failure did not differ between patients treated for bifurcation versus nonbifurcation lesions (13.1% vs 12.6%; P = .84), whereas the periprocedural myocardial infarction rate was higher in patients with bifurcation lesions (6.9% vs 3.1%; P < .01). Of the 362 patients with bifurcation lesion treatment, 179 (49.4%) were treated with Resolute and 183 (50.6%) with Xience V. There was no significant difference in target-vessel failure between the Resolute and Xience V groups with bifurcation treatment (13.6% vs 12.6%; P = .78), and their incidence of definite-or-probable stent thrombosis was low and similar (1.1% vs 0.5%, respectively; P = .62). Conclusion Despite a significant difference in periprocedural myocardial infarction, 3-year clinical outcome after implantation of second-generation stents was favorable and similar for patients with and without bifurcation lesions. In addition, we observed no difference in long-term clinical outcome after bifurcation lesion treatment with Resolute and Xience V stents.