title: Immediate and one-year outcome of intracoronary stent implantation in small coronary arteries with 2.5-mm stents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of coronary stenting in the treatment of stenoses in small coronary arteries with use of 2.5-mm stents is not well defined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between January 1995 and August 1999, 651 patients with stenoses in small coronary arteries were treated with 2.5-mm stents (n = 108) or 2.5-mm conventional balloon angioplasty (BA) (n = 543). Patients who received treatment with both 2.5-mm and > or =3.0-mm stent placement or balloons were excluded. Procedural success and complication rates as well as 1-year follow-up outcomes were examined. Baseline clinical characteristics were similar between the two groups, except patients in the stent group were more likely to have hypertension and a family history of coronary artery disease and less likely to have prior myocardial infarction. Angiographic success rates were higher in the stent group (97.2% vs 90.2%, P =.02). In-hospital complication rates were comparable between the two groups. Among successfully treated patients, 1-year follow-up revealed no significant differences in the survival (96.2% vs 95.2%, P =.89) or the frequency of Q-wave myocardial infarction (0% vs 0.4%, P =.60) or coronary artery bypass grafting (8.4% vs 6.8%, P =.89) between the stent and BA groups, respectively. However, patients in the stent group were more likely to have adverse cardiac events (35.4% vs 22.1%, P =.05). Stent use after excluding GR II stent use, however, was not independently associated with reduced cardiac events at follow-up (relative risk 1. 3 [95% confidence interval 0.8-2.3], P =.30).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intracoronary stent implantation of stenoses in small coronary arteries with 2.5-mm stents can be carried out with high success and acceptable complication rates. However, compared with BA alone, stent use was not associated with improved outcome through 1 year of follow-up.
authors: Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors: J A
authors: JA
authors: Suwaidi
authors: K N
authors: KN
authors: Garratt
authors: P B
authors: PB
authors: Berger
authors: C S
authors: CS
authors: Rihal
authors: M R
authors: MR
authors: Bell
authors: D E
authors: DE
authors: Grill
authors: D R
authors: DR
authors: Holmes
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015607:Stents; D015996:Survival Rate