Background: Early change in local intracoronary hemostasis following drug-eluting (DES) and bare metal stent (BMS) implantation has never been assessed in stable angina patients.
Methods: Markers of local platelet activation (soluble glycoprotein V [sGPV] and P-Selectin [CD62P]), coagulation activation (tissue factor [TF], prothrombin fragments 1 + 2 [F1 + 2] and activated factor VII [FVIIa]) and fibrinolysis markers (D-dimers [DD], fibrinogen [FIB], tissue plasminogen activator [t-PA], and plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 complexes [PAI-1]) were determined in 20 patients with stable angina who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). All patients were pretreated with clopidogrel, aspirin, and enoxaparin. Systematic balloon predilation was performed before DES (9 patients) and BMS (11 patients) implantation. All blood samples were drawn 10-20 mm distal to the lesion site.
Results: No significant changes in levels of platelet activation markers occurred during PCI. There was a transient significant increase in TF (14%; P = 0.004), in F1 + 2 (40%; P = 0.001), and FVIIa (31%; P = 0.007) following angioplasty. Similarly, a significant 43% increase was observed in DD levels following balloon predilation, associated with an increase of 46%, 60%, and 70% in FIB, t-PA and PAI-1 levels, respectively (all P < 0.0001). All these markers returned to baseline values after stent implantation. No difference was observed between DES and BMS.
Conclusions: Early changes in local hemostasis activation following PCI, were related to balloon predilation. Neither DES nor BMS increased markers of platelet activation, coagulation, or fibrinolysis, under dual antiplatelet and anticoagulant pretreatment.