Two-year outcomes after utilization of the taxus paclitaxel-eluting stent in bifurcations and multivessel stenting in the ARRIVE registries

Aims: Examine the incidence of clinical events after utilization of the TAXUS ^A® Express ^A® paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) in multivessel and bifurcation coronary stenting in an unselected patient population. Methods and Results: The ARRIVE Program compiled data on 7,492 patients receiving ≥1 TAXUS Express PES, including patients with multivessel stenting (MVS; n = 1,208) and bifurcation stenting (n = 575). Patients were enrolled at procedure start with no mandated inclusion/exclusion criteria; all cardiac events were monitored with independent adjudication of end-points. Compared to simple use (single vessel/single stent) patients undergoing native intervention (N = 2,698), MVS patients had significantly more baseline comorbidities. Both groups had higher 2-year rates of mortality (7.3%[MVS] and 7.5%[bifurcation] vs. 4.2%[simple-use], P < 0.001), myocardial infarction (5.5% and 4.6% vs. 2.2%, P < 0.001 and P = 0.002), target vessel revascularization (15.5% and 14.8% vs. 7.7%, P < 0.001), and Academic Research Consortium definite/probable stent thrombosis (4.3% and 4.4% vs. 1.4%, P < 0.001) than the simple-use group. Conclusions: ARRIVE multivessel and bifurcation stenting patients have significantly higher clinical risk through 2 years compared to simple-use patients. In the absence of large randomized controlled trials in these populations, ARRIVE provides important insight into clinical outcomes over an extended period of time.