Cypher Stent Shows Sustained Clinical Benefits Compared With Bare-Metal Stents

Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, announced results of a study showing that its Cypher sirolimus-eluting coronary stent provides clinical benefits compared with a bare metal stent out to five years of follow-up, with no differences in safety.

At the five-year follow-up, the patients in the Cypher arm of the study continued to be significantly less likely than the patients in the bare metal stent arm to need another procedure in the same arterial area, Cordis said. In addition, investigators found similar rates of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and mortality between the Cypher and the bare-metal stent, as well as no significant difference between their rates of stent thrombosis (blood clots).

The E-SIRIUS trial is a double blind, multi-center, controlled, randomized trial designed to compare restenosis (re-blockage) rates between the Cypher stent and a bare metal stent. It involved 352 patients from 35 European clinical centers. Patients enrolled in the study were considered to be at moderate to high clinical risk for restenosis due to a previous heart attack or smoking.