13. PTCA versus PCI (Stent)

PCI is the new thing. It must be great right? Those stents, they have solved everything. At last count there were 23 trials which compared PTCA (percutaneous coronary angioplasty) to PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention which is defined as PCTA with a stent) in which all the patients were administered anti-platelet therapy. 10,347 patients were randomized to either stent (5310) or no stent (balloon) (5127). The 23 studies were typical cardiology studies with those clever names like BOSS, OCBAS, BENESTENT, OPUS, FROST, DESTINI, SPACTO, TOSCA, SARECCO, MAJIC, PASTA, GRAMI, FRESCO, STENTUIM, PAMI, CADILLAC, ISAR-SMART, SISA, BESMART. I personally love those names for studies. It is like a list of Italian operas. I am not sure I want to be in a survival study called DESTINI, but I would like to say I am working on my OPUS and later I will BESMART when I put in a BENESTENT in my CADILLAC.

Clever Stent Study Names

• Belgian Netherlands Stent Study (BENESTENT) II
• Optimal Coronary Balloon Angioplasty With Provisional Stenting Versus Primary

  Stent (OCBAS)
• Balloon Optimization vs Stent Study (BOSS)
• Evaluation of Platelet IIb/IIIa Inhibitor for Stenting (EPISTENT)
• Optimum Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty Compared With Routine Stent Strategy (OPUS-1)
• French Optimal Stenting Trial (FROST)
• Angioplasty or Stent (AS), and Doppler Endpoint Stenting International Investigation (DESTINI) trials for de novo coronary artery lesions
• Stent vs Percutaneous Angioplasty in Chronic Total Occlusion (SPACTO)
• Total Occlusion Study of Canada (TOSCA)
• Stent or Angioplasty after Recanalization of Chronic Coronary Occlusions (SARECCO)
• Mayo-Japan Investigation for Chronic Total Occlusion (MAJIC) trials for coronary occlusions
• Primary Angioplasty Versus Stent Implantation in Acute Myocardial Infarction (PASTA)
• Gianturco-Roubin in Acute Myocardial Infarction (GRAMI)
• Florence Randomized Elective Stenting in Acute Coronary Occlusions (FRESCO)
• Immediate Coronary Angioplasty with Elective Wiktor Stent Implantation Compared with Conventional Balloon Angioplasty in Acute Myocardial Infarction (STENTUIM-2)
• Stent Primary Angioplasty in MI (Stent-PAMI)
• Zwolle
• Controlled Abciximab and Device Investigation to Lower Late Angioplasty Complications (CADILLAC) trials for acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
• Intracoronary Stenting or Angioplasty for Restenosis Reduction in Small Arteries (ISAR-SMART)
• Park
• Stenting in Small Arteries (SISA)
• Bestent in Small Arteries (BESMART) trials for small vessels.

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