Background: The role of coronary stenting in the treatment of patients with small vessels is not well defined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of vessel size on long-term clinical and angiographic outcome after coronary stent placement.
Methods and results: The study comprised 2602 patients with successful stent implantation for symptomatic coronary artery disease. Patients were subdivided into 3 equally sized groups (tertiles) according to vessel size, with respective ranges of <2.8, 2.8 to 3.2, and >3.2 mm. Event-free survival at 1 year was 69.5% in the group with smaller vessels, 77.5% in the second group, and 81% in the group with larger vessels (P<0.001). Late lumen loss was similar between the 3 groups (1.12+/-0.73, 1.12+/-0.79, and 1.09+/-0. 88 mm, respectively). Angiographic restenosis rate was significantly higher in the small-vessel group (38.6%, 28.4%, and 20.4% in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively; P<0.001). The analysis identified subgroups with different risk for restenosis even among patients with small vessels. Within this group, the restenosis rate may be as low as 29.6% in patients without additional risk factors and as high as 53.5% in patients with diabetes and complex lesions.
Conclusions: Patients with small vessels present a higher risk for an adverse outcome after coronary stent placement because of a higher incidence of restenosis. However, the unusually high risk for restenosis is confined to those patients with small vessels who have concomitant risk factors such as diabetes and complex lesions.