( in these patients andare much less in...)Cypher Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent Had Similar Results to,Bypass Surgery in Long-Term Study of Patients With Multi-Vessel,Coronary Artery Disease,Health

Specifically, 80.6 percent of the patients who received the CYPHER(R) Stent remained free of MACCE, compared to 83.8 percent of the patients in the bypass surgery arm. Additionally, the CYPHER(R) Stent performed considerably better than the BMS arm in the same endpoint, as 66.0 percent of the patients who received a BMS did not experience a MACCE event after three years. The difference between the CYPHER(R) Stent arm and the BMS arm reached statistical significance (p<0.001).

The severe event rate (a composite for death, stroke and heart attack) for the CYPHER(R) Stent was compared with both the bypass surgery and BMS. The three-year follow-up data showed that 92.0 percent of the patients who received the CYPHER(R) Stent had survived and had not experienced a stroke or a heart attack, compared with 89.1 percent of the patients in the bypass surgery arm and 87.2 percent of the patients in the BMS arm. The difference between the CYPHER(R) Stent arm and the BMS arm reached statistical significance (p=0.004).

"More than 25 years ago, balloon angioplasty transformed the treatment paradigm for patients with coronary artery disease," said David E. Kandzari, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I., Chief Medical Officer, Cordis Cardiology Division of Cordis Corporation. "The three-year results of the ARTS II Study indicated that balloon angioplasty combined with the CYPHER(R) Stent was as good a treatment as bypass surgery and provided better outcomes than BMS implantation in patients with multi-vessel disease."

The ARTS II Study investigators also reported stent thrombosis rates using the Academic Research Consortium (ARC) definition. The definite stent thrombosis rate for the CYPHER(R) Stent at 30 days was 1 percent, lower than the 2.8 percent rate found in the BMS arm. The cumulative rates of definite and definite/probable stent thrombosis for the CYPHER(R) Stent at three-year follow-up were 3.3 percent and 5
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