Impact of platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibition on the Paclitaxel-eluting stent in patients with stable or unstable angina pectoris or provocable myocardial ischemia (A TAXUS IV substudy)

Whether the benefits that glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors confer in patients who undergo bare metal stent implantation extend to drug-eluting stents is unknown. We performed a prespecified subgroup analysis of the TAXUS IV study population to examine the effect of procedural glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibition during paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation on periprocedural creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) levels. Glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors were administered to 57.7% of patients who had been randomized to receive the TAXUS stent and to 56.7% of those who had been randomized to receive the control stent. Among patients who received the TAXUS stent, the rate of CK-MB increases of >3 times the normal level was 2.6-fold higher in those who received a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor than in those who did not (11.4% vs 4.4%, p = 0.0015). Composite rates of major adverse cardiac events and target vessel failure were also higher at 1 month in the GP IIb/IIIa group. By multivariate analysis, use of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors during stenting with the TAXUS stent was an independent predictor of CK-MB increases >3 times the normal level. Further studies are warranted.