Abluminal biodegradable polymer biolimus-eluting versus durable polymer everolimus-eluting stent in patients with diabetes mellitus 5 years follow-up from the COMPARE II trial

_Background:_ Drug eluting stents with biodegradable polymers have been developed to address the risk of very late adverse events. Long-term comparison data between the biodegradable polymer-coated biolimus-eluting stent (BES; Nobori®) and the second-generation durable polymer-coated everolimus-eluting stent (EES; XIENCE V® or XIENCE PRIME® or PROMUS™) in diabetic patients are scarce. _Methods:_ The COMPARE II trial was an investigator-initiated, multicenter, open-label, randomized, all-comers trial which assigned patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a 2:1 fashion to either BES or EES.We analyzed the safety and efficacy outcomes in diabetic patients at 5 year follow-up. The primary pre-specified composite endpoint major adverse cardiac event (MACE) was defined as cardiac death, non-fatal target-vessel myocardial infarction (TV-MI), or clinically indicated target vessel revascularization (CD-TVR). _Results:_ Out of 2707 study patients, 588 were diabetics of whom 391 were treated with BES and 197 with EES. At 5 years follow-up, MACE occurred in 87 patients in the BES group and in 34 patients in the EES group. Other safety and efficacy endpoints did not differ between stent groups. _Conclusions:_ At 5 years follow-up, no differences in terms of MACE as well as all analyzed safety and efficacy measures, including stent thrombosis, between the biodegradable polymer-coated BES and the durable polymercoated EES in diabetic patients were observed