A clinical and angiographic study of the XIENCE V everolimus-eluting coronary stent system in the treatment of patients with multivessel coronary artery disease. Study design and rationale of the EXECUTIVE trial.

Background: Myocardial revascularization with drug-eluting stents (DESs) is emerging as an alternative to conventional coronary artery bypass surgery in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (MV-CAD). First-generation DESs have yielded equivalent safety results at mid-term compared with surgery, but inferior efficacy in preventing the recurrence of ischemic symptoms. The outcome of percutaneous coronary intervention with a second-generation everolimus DES as compared with a paclitaxel DES in patients with MV-CAD has not been established.