Clinical and angiographic follow-up after single long GFX coronary stent implantation

In order to identify predictors of late restenosis after GFX stent implantation, procedural and 6-month clinical and angiographic follow-up data of prospectively entered 141 consecutive lesions treated with a single long (24 or 30 mm) GFX stent were compared to 66 consecutive lesions requiring a single short (12 or 18 mm) stent. The initial clinical success rate of 97% and thrombosis rate of 1.4% with long stents were similar to 97% and 0% with short stents (P = NS). Their respective binary restenosis rates were 34.7% and 23.3% for long and short stents as a whole (P = NS), but being 10.0% for 12 mm, 26.0% for 18 mm, 31.3% for 24 mm, and 39.2% for 30 mm. When proximal and distal reference diameters at baseline were compared between the lesions with and without restenosis, proximal reference diameters were not statistically different (3.02 +/- 0.42 mm vs. 3.18 +/- 0.62 mm) and the restenosis group had significantly smaller distal reference diameters (2.15 +/- 0.48 mm vs. 2.55 +/- 0.53 mm, P < 0.0001). The treatment of long lesions with single long-stent implantation can be accomplished with high success and low complication rates. Single long-stent implantation may be effective, if the distal reference size of the long narrowing is big enough to accept the stent. (C) Wiley-Liss, Inc.