Drug-Coated Balloon-Based Versus Drug-Eluting Stent-Only Strategy in Stable Angina and Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Propensity-Score Overlap-Weighted Analysis

Background: Whether the comparative effectiveness of a drug-coated balloon (DCB)-based versus drug-eluting stent (DES)-only percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) strategy differs between stable angina (SA) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains uncertain. Methods: In this observational, registry-based study, we analyzed 11,522 patients (4490 with SA and 7032 with ACS) from two multicenter registry sources who had undergone PCI in routine clinical practice; the treatment strategy was not assigned by a study protocol. Within each presentation, the DCB-based and DES-only strategies were compared using propensity-score overlap weighting. Complementary within-strategy analyses compared SA with ACS. The primary outcome was the 3-year rate of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). Results: In both presentations, a DCB-based strategy was associated with a lower 3-year risk of MACCE than a DES-only strategy, with a stronger association in SA (overlap-weighted hazard ratio [HR], 0.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.22–0.49) than in ACS (HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.59–0.91; p-for-interaction < 0.001). Within-strategy analyses localized this effect modification to the DCB-based group: SA was associated with a lower risk of MACCE than ACS (HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.31–0.69) in the DCB-based group, whereas this gradient was absent in the DES-only group. The incidence of major bleeding was lower with the DCB-based strategy in both presentations. Conclusions: A DCB-based PCI strategy was associated with lower 3-year event rates than a DES-only strategy in both SA and ACS, with the strongest relative association in SA. These observational findings are hypothesis-generating and warrant confirmation in randomized trials.