First Serial Assessment at 6 Months and 2 Years of the Second Generation of Absorb Everolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold

Background—Nonserial observations have shown this bioresorbable scaffold to have no signs of area reduction at 6 months and recovery of vasomotion at 1 year. Serial observations at 6 months and 2 years have to confirm the absence of late restenosis or unfavorable imaging outcomes.

Methods and Results—The ABSORB trial is a multicenter single-arm trial assessing the safety and performance of an everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold. Forty-five patients underwent serial invasive imaging, such as quantitative coronary angiography, intravascular ultrasound, and optical coherence tomography at 6 and 24 months of follow-up. From 6 to 24 months, late luminal loss increased from 0.16±0.18 to 0.27±0.20 mm on quantitative coronary angiography, with an increase in neointima of 0.68±0.43 mm² on optical coherence tomography and 0.17±0.26 mm² on intravascular ultrasound. Struts still recognizable on optical coherence tomography at 2 years showed 99% of neointimal coverage with optical and ultrasonic signs of bioresorption accompanied by increase in mean scaffold area compared with baseline (0.54±1.09 mm² on intravascular ultrasound, P=0.003 and 0.77±1.33 m² on optical coherence tomography, P=0.016). Two-year major adverse cardiac event rate was 6.8% without any scaffold thrombosis.

Conclusions—This serial analysis of the second generation of the everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold confirmed, at medium term, the safety and efficacy of the new device.

Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00856856.