Randomised placebo-controlled and balloon-angioplasty-controlled trial to assess safety of coronary stenting with use of platelet glycoprotein-IIb/IIIa blockade

Coronary stenting with use of heparin, aspirin, and ticlopidine for thromboprophylaxis is performed in more than 500 000 patients per year worldwide. We did a randomised controlled trial to assess the role of platelet glycoprotein-IIb/IIIa blockade for use in elective stenting. At 63 hospitals in the USA and Canada, 2399 patients with ischaemic heart disease and suitable coronary-artery lesions were randomly assigned stenting plus placebo (n=809), stenting plus abciximab, a IIb/IIIa inhibitor (n=794), or balloon angioplasty plus abciximab (n=796). The primary endpoint was a combination of death, myocardial infarction, or need for urgent revascularisation in the first 30 days. All patients received heparin, aspirin, and standard pharmacological therapy. The primary endpoint occurred in 87 (10·8%) of 809 patients in the stent plus placebo group, 42 (5·3%) of 794 in the stent plus abciximab group (hazard ratio 0·48 [95% CI 0·33–0.69] p