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In this international, randomized trial, patients with minor stroke or TIA who received clopidogrel plus aspirin had a lower risk of major ischemic events but a higher risk of major hemorrhage at 90 days than those who received aspirin alone.

In this randomized trial involving 13,885 patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD), ticagrelor was not shown to be superior to clopidogrel for the reduction of cardiovascular events. Major bleeding occurred at similar rates with ticagrelor and clopidogrel. Peripheral artery disease is considered to be a clinical manifestation of systemic atherosclerosis affecting the vascular territories supplying the lower limbs. Most patients presenting with peripheral artery disease do not have a clinical history of cardiac or cerebral ischemic events, yet these patients are at high risk for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular death. 1 Concomitant clinical evidence of coronary or cerebrovascular disease only magnifies this risk. 2 Therapies to reduce the ischemic risk associated with atherosclerosis have focused on patients with acute coronary syndromes and stable coronary artery disease. Antithrombotic drugs, mainly antiplatelet therapies and statins, are the cornerstone of . . .

In a multicenter, randomized trial, ticagrelor — a reversible inhibitor of the adenosine diphosphate receptor P2Y12 — was compared with clopidogrel in patients who had an acute coronary syndrome with or without ST-segment elevation. At 12 months, the primary end point of death from vascular causes, myocardial infarction, or stroke occurred less often with ticagrelor. Ticagrelor was not associated with an increase in the risk of major bleeding. At 12 months, the primary end point of death from vascular causes, myocardial infarction, or stroke occurred less often with ticagrelor. Ticagrelor was not associated with an increase in the risk of major bleeding. In patients who have acute coronary syndromes with or without ST-segment elevation, current clinical practice guidelines 1 – 4 recommend dual antiplatelet treatment with aspirin and clopidogrel. The efficacy of clopidogrel is hampered by the slow and variable transformation of the prodrug to the active metabolite, modest and variable platelet inhibition, 5 , 6 an increased risk of bleeding, 7 , 8 and an increased risk of stent thrombosis and myocardial infarction in patients with a poor response. 9 As compared with clopidogrel, prasugrel, another thienopyridine prodrug, has a more consistent and pronounced inhibitory effect on platelets, 5 , 6 resulting in a lower risk of myocardial infarction and . . .

In this trial, dabigatran plus a P2Y 12 inhibitor was compared with warfarin plus a P2Y 12 inhibitor and aspirin after PCI in patients with atrial fibrillation. The risk of bleeding was lower with dabigatran therapy; prevention of thromboembolic events was similar with the two strategies.

We hypothesised that ticagrelor, in combination with aspirin for 1 month, followed by ticagrelor alone, improves outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention compared with standard antiplatelet regimens. GLOBAL LEADERS was a randomised, open-label superiority trial at 130 sites in 18 countries. Patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with a biolimus A9-eluting stent for stable coronary artery disease or acute coronary syndromes were randomly assigned (1:1) to 75–100 mg aspirin daily plus 90 mg ticagrelor twice daily for 1 month, followed by 23 months of ticagrelor monotherapy, or standard dual antiplatelet therapy with 75–100 mg aspirin daily plus either 75 mg clopidogrel daily (for patients with stable coronary artery disease) or 90 mg ticagrelor twice daily (for patients with acute coronary syndromes) for 12 months, followed by aspirin monotherapy for 12 months. Randomisation was concealed, stratified by centre and clinical presentation (stable coronary artery disease vs acute coronary syndrome), and blocked, with randomly varied block sizes of two and four. The primary endpoint at 2 years was a composite of all-cause mortality or non-fatal centrally adjudicated new Q-wave myocardial infarction as assessed by a core lab in a blinded manner. The key secondary safety endpoint was site-reported bleeding assessed according to the Bleeding Academic Research Consortium criteria (grade 3 or 5). Analysis was by intention to treat. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01813435, and is closed to new participants, with follow-up completed. Between July 1, 2013, and Nov 9, 2015, 15 968 participants were randomly assigned, 7980 to the experimental group and 7988 to the control group. At 2 years, 304 (3·81%) participants in the experimental group had died or had a non-fatal centrally adjudicated new Q-wave myocardial infarction, compared with 349 (4·37%) participants in the control group (rate ratio 0·87 [95% CI 0·75–1·01]; p=0·073]). There was no evidence for a difference in treatment effects for the primary endpoint across prespecified subgroups of acute coronary syndromes and stable coronary artery disease (p=0·93). Grade 3 or 5 bleeding occurred in 163 participants in the experimental group and 169 in the control group (2·04% vs 2·12%; rate ratio 0·97 [95% CI 0·78–1·20]; p=0·77). Ticagrelor in combination with aspirin for 1 month followed by ticagrelor alone for 23 months was not superior to 12 months of standard dual antiplatelet therapy followed by 12 months of aspirin alone in the prevention of all-cause mortality or new Q-wave myocardial infarction 2 years after percutaneous coronary intervention. AstraZeneca, Biosensors, and The Medicines Company.

Current guidelines recommend potent platelet inhibition with prasugrel or ticagrelor for 12 months after an acute coronary syndrome managed with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the greatest anti-ischaemic benefit of potent antiplatelet drugs over the less potent clopidogrel occurs early, while most excess bleeding events arise during chronic treatment. Hence, a stage-adapted treatment with potent platelet inhibition in the acute phase and de-escalation to clopidogrel in the maintenance phase could be an alternative approach. We aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of early de-escalation of antiplatelet treatment from prasugrel to clopidogrel guided by platelet function testing (PFT). In this investigator-initiated, randomised, open-label, assessor-blinded, multicentre trial (TROPICAL-ACS) done at 33 sites in Europe, patients were enrolled if they had biomarker-positive acute coronary syndrome with successful PCI and a planned duration of dual antiplatelet treatment of 12 months. Enrolled patients were randomly assigned (1:1) using an internet-based randomisation procedure with a computer-generated block randomisation with stratification across study sites to either standard treatment with prasugrel for 12 months (control group) or a step-down regimen (1 week prasugrel followed by 1 week clopidogrel and PFT-guided maintenance therapy with clopidogrel or prasugrel from day 14 after hospital discharge; guided de-escalation group). The assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary endpoint was net clinical benefit (cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke or bleeding grade 2 or higher according to Bleeding Academic Research Consortium [BARC]) criteria) 1 year after randomisation (non-inferiority hypothesis; margin of 30%). Analysis was intention to treat. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01959451, and EudraCT, 2013-001636-22. Between Dec 2, 2013, and May 20, 2016, 2610 patients were assigned to study groups; 1304 to the guided de-escalation group and 1306 to the control group. The primary endpoint occurred in 95 patients (7%) in the guided de-escalation group and in 118 patients (9%) in the control group (pnon-inferiority=0·0004; hazard ratio [HR] 0·81 [95% CI 0·62–1·06], psuperiority=0·12). Despite early de-escalation, there was no increase in the combined risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke in the de-escalation group (32 patients [3%]) versus in the control group (42 patients [3%]; pnon-inferiority=0·0115). There were 64 BARC 2 or higher bleeding events (5%) in the de-escalation group versus 79 events (6%) in the control group (HR 0·82 [95% CI 0·59–1·13]; p=0·23). Guided de-escalation of antiplatelet treatment was non-inferior to standard treatment with prasugrel at 1 year after PCI in terms of net clinical benefit. Our trial shows that early de-escalation of antiplatelet treatment can be considered as an alternative approach in patients with acute coronary syndrome managed with PCI. Klinikum der Universität München, Roche Diagnostics, Eli Lilly, and Daiichi Sankyo.

Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin plus a P2Y12 inhibitor prevents ischaemic events after coronary stenting, but increases bleeding. Guidelines support weighting bleeding risk before the selection of treatment duration, but no standardised tool exists for this purpose. A total of 14 963 patients treated with DAPT after coronary stenting—largely consisting of aspirin and clopidogrel and without indication to oral anticoagulation—were pooled at a single-patient level from eight multicentre randomised clinical trials with independent adjudication of events. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we identified predictors of out-of-hospital Thrombosis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) major or minor bleeding stratified by trial, and developed a numerical bleeding risk score. The predictive performance of the novel score was assessed in the derivation cohort and validated in patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention from the PLATelet inhibition and patient Outcomes (PLATO) trial (n=8595) and BernPCI registry (n=6172). The novel score was assessed within patients randomised to different DAPT durations (n=10 081) to identify the effect on bleeding and ischaemia of a long (12–24 months) or short (3–6 months) treatment in relation to baseline bleeding risk. The PRECISE-DAPT score (age, creatinine clearance, haemoglobin, white-blood-cell count, and previous spontaneous bleeding) showed a c-index for out-of-hospital TIMI major or minor bleeding of 0·73 (95% CI 0·61–0·85) in the derivation cohort, and 0·70 (0·65–0·74) in the PLATO trial validation cohort and 0·66 (0·61–0·71) in the BernPCI registry validation cohort. A longer DAPT duration significantly increased bleeding in patients at high risk (score ≥25), but not in those with lower risk profiles (pinteraction=0·007), and exerted a significant ischaemic benefit only in this latter group. The PRECISE-DAPT score is a simple five-item risk score, which provides a standardised tool for the prediction of out-of-hospital bleeding during DAPT. In the context of a comprehensive clinical evaluation process, this tool can support clinical decision making for treatment duration. None.

Patients who had received a drug-eluting stent and then dual antiplatelet therapy for 12 months were randomly assigned to 18 more months of therapy or aspirin alone. Continued therapy resulted in lower rates of stent thrombosis and major adverse cardiovascular events but more bleeding. Millions of patients worldwide undergo coronary stenting each year for the treatment of ischemic heart disease. 1 , 2 Although drug-eluting stents reduce the rate of restenosis as compared with bare-metal stents, there is concern that drug-eluting stents may be associated with a risk of stent thrombosis beyond 1 year after treatment. 3 Stent thrombosis is rare, yet it is frequently associated with myocardial infarction and may be fatal. 3 Furthermore, ischemic events, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes, that are unrelated to the treated coronary lesion may also occur beyond 1 year. 4 , 5 The use of dual antiplatelet therapy . . .

In this trial involving patients with minor stroke or transient ischemic attack, treatment with a combination of clopidogrel and aspirin within 24 hours after onset reduced the risk of stroke in the next 90 days, as compared with aspirin alone. Transient ischemic attack (TIA) and acute minor ischemic stroke are common and often lead to disabling events. In China, there are approximately 3 million new strokes every year, and approximately 30% of them are minor ischemic strokes. 1 , 2 The incidence of TIA in China has not been determined, but on the basis of the incidence in other countries, there are probably more than 2 million TIAs annually in China. 3 – 5 The risk of another stroke occurring after a TIA or minor stroke is high, with approximately 10 to 20% of patients having a stroke within 3 months after the index . . .

This trial compared the efficacy of antiplatelet therapy with prasugrel or clopidogrel in patients with non–ST-segment elevation MI or unstable angina. Although prasugrel provides more intense platelet inhibition, clinical outcomes were similar with the two drugs. Clinical-practice guidelines for patients with acute coronary syndromes consisting of unstable angina or myocardial infarction without ST-segment elevation recommend a strategy of early invasive management (angiography within 48 to 72 hours with provisional revascularization) for patients at moderate to high risk. 1 , 2 However, analyses from clinical trials and national registries have shown that many such patients are treated medically without revascularization and that such patients have poorer long-term cardiovascular outcomes than those who undergo revascularization. 3 – 6 Even though patients with acute coronary syndromes who receive only medical therapy have an increased-risk profile, they have been underrepresented in large-scale, contemporary, randomized . . .