BioFreedom Ultra Registry

Over the past three decades, coronary stent struts have been made progressively thinner. Thin strut drug-eluting stents (DES) performed better than their thicker counterparts in a recent study. Thinner struts discourage abnormal coronary flow after implantation and associated with greater flexibility, deliverability and better clinical outcomes. Lower strut thickness may be particularly advantageous in small target vessels because thicker struts and smaller minimum in-stent lumen diameter are independent predictors of in-stent restenosis. BioFreedom Ultra is a thin strut (84μm), cobalt-chromium, carrier-free drug-coated stent with Biolimus A9 drug. The BioFreedom Ultra stent is intended for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for high-bleeding-risk (HBR) patients treated with 1-month dual antiplatelet therapy. BioFreedom Ultra received CE mark in October 2020 supported by the LEADERS FREE III trial which enrolled 400 HBR patients using the same inclusion criteria as the LEADERS FREE randomized trial. LEADERS FREE III is a single-arm trial, with all patients treated using the BioFreedom Ultra stent. The data was compared to the BioFreedom stainless steel drug-coated stent (DCS-StS) and bare-metal stent (BMS) groups from LEADERS FREE. The primary safety endpoint of the trial was a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or definite/probable stent thrombosis. The primary efficacy endpoint was clinically driven target lesion revascularization. The study found that the BioFreedom Ultra was non-inferior to the DCS-StS for safety and superior to the BMS for efficacy. Definite or probable stent thrombosis at 1 year in this HBR population was only 1%. Recently, the Biofreedom QCA randomized trial compared the Biofreedom Ultra with the stainless steel version (DCS-StS) in an all-comer population. In this prospective, single-blind non-inferiority randomized (1:1) trial, BioFreedom Ultra was non-inferiority for late lumen loss at 9 months in comparison with DCS-StS.