Very late thrombosis of a drug-eluting stent deployed during primary angioplasty for ST-elevation myocardial infarction

Drug-eluting stents, despite being very effective in reducing restenosis after percutaneous coronary interventions, are associated with a low but definite risk of late thrombotic occlusion with adverse clinical events. To date, the incidence and overall risk of late thrombosis of drug-eluting stents after primary percutaneous coronary interventions for ST-elevation myocardial infarction are not well defined because of the relative paucity of evidence-based data. We report the case of an angiographically confirmed paclitaxel-eluting stent thrombosis, occurring 20 months after successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention in a 41-year-old woman. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most delayed case of paclitaxel-eluting stent thrombosis described so far. J Cardiovasc Med 7:771-774 (C) 2006 Italian Federation of Cardiology.