OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether use of a drug-eluting stent (DES) affected the likelihood of receiving a glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitor among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with a stent. GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors have been used in conjunction with PCI to reduce ischemic events at or just following the time of the procedure. Drug-eluting stents, approved by the FDA on April 23, 2003, have been reported to decrease restenosis of a vessel over the long-term. GPIIa/IIIa inhibitors and drug-eluting stents are complementary technologies. METHODS: We extracted data for 5016 PCI patients with DES or non-DES, admitted between April 24 and June 30, 2003 from the Solucient, LLC ACTracker database - a proprietary database with detailed drug information. Patients were identified as having received a GPIIb/IIIa inhibitor if they received any of the following drugs: abciximab, tirofiban, or eptifibatide. The likelihood of a patient with a DES receiving a GPIIb/IIIa inhibitor was modeled using a logistic regression equation, adjusting for hospital and demographic characteristics, as well as whether the patient had an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). RESULTS: Patients undergoing PCI with a DES were less likely than those undergoing PCI with a non-DES to receive a GPIIb/IIIa inhibitor. However, the results were not statistically significant. (OR = 0.917, 95% CI .793, 1.061). CONCLUSIONS: Data from the time period just after approval of drug-eluting stents does not show any statistically significant difference between use of GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors among PCI patients receiving DES and non-DES. However, the lower use of GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors among DES patients in our study may prove to be significant once data from additional PCI patients becomes available.