New-generation drug-eluting stents in various patient populations

The prolonged efforts to develop superior drug-eluting stents (DES) for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) led to stents which, in clinical studies, were associated with diminishing adverse event rates in unselected patient populations (i.e., all-comers). Innovation and refinement of DES resulted in a constant supply of novel stents being
introduced in clinical practice. Every novel DES comes with the promise of improved feasibility of PCI or improved clinical outcome, but whether this is actually the case will
require assessment in large-scale randomized studies.
Although in all-comers there has been a general improvement in clinical outcome after coronary stenting, certain sub-populations still have an increased risk for repeat
revascularization, myocardial infarction, and ultimately mortality. Further research in these patient groups is required to find out whether tailoring PCI with DES implantation
to specific patient characteristics may result in more favorable outcomes.

This dissertation assessed the clinical outcome of all-comers as well as various subgroups of patients who were treated with new-generation DES for obstructive coronary artery
disease.