Comparison of six-month outcomes for primary percutaneous revascularization for acute myocardial infarction with drug-eluting versus bare metal stents (from the APEX-AMI study).

We evaluated the use and outcomes of drug-eluting stents (DESs) and bare metal stents (BMSs) in a large primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (MI) trial. Recently concerns have been raised with "off-label" use of DESs for short- and long-term clinical outcomes. Limited randomized data exist evaluating DESs versus BMSs in ST-elevation MI.