Abstract:

Objective To investigate the clinical effects, safety and cost of domestic and imported drug eluting stents in patients undergoing treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Methods The data of 440 patients undergoing treatment of acute myocardial infarction with domestic drug eluting stents (n=318, domestic stent group) or imported drug eluting stents (n=122, imported stent group) in two hospitals of Shanghai were obtained by chart review and telephone follow-up from January 2007 to June 2009. Comparison and analysis were conducted in two groups with effect, safety and economic parameters as dependent variables and the other related factors of patients as independent variables. Results There was no significant difference in mortality during hospitalization, mortality in one year of follow-up, percent of recurrence of myocardiopathy and percent of a second conventional coronary angiography (CAG) or a second percutaneous coronary intervention between two groups (P>0.05). The cost of drug eluting stents per person and cost of each drug eluting stent in imported stent group were significantly higher than those of domestic stent group (P<0.001). Patients with medical insurance paid much less for drug eluting stents per person than those without medical insurance (P<0.05). No matter with medical insurance or not, patients in imported stent group paid much more for drug eluting stents per person than those in domestic stent group (P<0.05). Conclusion Domestic drug eluting stents have better cost-effective properties than imported drug eluting stents in treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Higher payment ratio should be implemented on imported drug eluting stents for a more widely use of domestic drug eluting stents.

Key words: acute myocardial infarction, drug eluting stent, cost, medical insurance