Data are limited regarding the risk of cerebrovascular ischemic events and major bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and/or percutaneous ...coronary intervention (PCI).
Determine the efficacy and safety of apixaban or vitamin K antagonists (VKA) and aspirin or placebo according to prior stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), or thromboembolism (TE).
In this prospective, multicenter, 2-by-2 factorial, randomized clinical trial, post hoc parallel analyses were performed to compare randomized treatment regimens according to presence or absence of prior stroke/TIA/TE using Cox proportional hazards models. Patients with AF, recent ACS or PCI, and planned use of P2Y12 inhibitors for 6 months or longer were included; 33 patients with missing data about prior stroke/TIA/TE were excluded.
Apixaban (5 mg or 2.5 mg twice daily) or VKA and aspirin or placebo.
Major or clinically relevant nonmajor (CRNM) bleeding.
Of 4581 patients included, 633 (13.8%) had prior stroke/TIA/TE. Patients with vs without prior stroke/TIA/TE were older; had higher CHA2DS2-VASC and HAS-BLED scores; and more frequently had prior bleeding, heart failure, diabetes, and prior oral anticoagulant use. Apixaban was associated with lower rates of major or CRNM bleeding and death or hospitalization than VKA in patients with (hazard ratio HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.46-1.03) and without (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.57-0.82) prior stroke/TIA/TE. Patients without prior stroke/TIA/TE receiving aspirin vs placebo had higher rates of bleeding; this difference appeared less substantial among patients with prior stroke/TIA/TE (P = .01 for interaction). Aspirin was associated with numerically lower rates of death or ischemic events than placebo in patients with (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.42-1.20) and without (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.72-1.21) prior stroke/TIA/TE (not statistically significant).
The safety and efficacy of apixaban compared with VKA was consistent with the AUGUSTUS findings, irrespective of prior stroke/TIA/TE. Aspirin increased major or CRNM bleeding, particularly in patients without prior stroke/TIA/TE. Although aspirin may have some benefit in patients with prior stroke, our findings support the use of apixaban and a P2Y12 inhibitor without aspirin for the majority of patients with AF and ACS and/or PCI, regardless of prior stroke/TIA/TE status.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02415400.
BACKGROUND: Vitamin K antagonists are the only oral anticoagulants approved to prevent valve thrombosis and valve-related thromboembolism in patients with mechanical heart valves. Whether patients ...with an On-X mechanical aortic valve can be safely anticoagulated with apixaban is unknown. METHODS: Patients with an On-X aortic valve implanted at least 3 months before enrollment were randomly assigned to receive apixaban 5 mg twice daily or warfarin (target international normalized ratio 2.0 to 3.0). The primary efficacy end point was the composite of valve thrombosis or valve-related thromboembolism with coprimary analyses comparing apixaban with warfarin for noninferiority and comparing the apixaban event rate with an objective performance criterion (OPC). RESULTS: The trial was stopped after 863 participants were enrolled owing to an excess of thromboembolic events in the apixaban group. Most (94%) participants took aspirin. A total of 26 primary end-point events occurred, 20 (in 16 participants) in the apixaban group (4.2%/patient-year; 95% confidence interval CI, 2.3 to 6.0) and 6 (in 6 participants) in the warfarin group (1.3%/patient-year; 95% CI, 0.3 to 2.3). The difference in primary end-point rates between the apixaban and warfarin groups was 2.9 (95% CI, 0.8 to 5.0); noninferiority and OPC success criteria were not met. Major bleeding rates were 3.6%/patient-year with apixaban and 4.5%/patient-year with warfarin. CONCLUSIONS: Apixaban did not demonstrate noninferiority to warfarin and is less effective than warfarin for the prevention of valve thrombosis or thromboembolism in patients with an On-X mechanical aortic valve. (Funded by Artivion; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04142658.)
Background
In 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration requested that GlaxoSmithKline perform retrospective adjudication of cardiovascular (CV) events reported in the bupropion drug‐development ...trials for smoking cessation.
Hypothesis
Retrospective adjudication of clinical trial data will not increase the identification of adverse events.
Methods
We performed a comprehensive retrospective analysis of adverse events in 19 previously completed controlled US clinical trials of bupropion marketed for the treatment of smoking cessation, yielding 9479 subjects (5290 bupropion, 2927 placebo, 1018 active control ACT, and 244 treated concurrently with bupropion and ACT). All adverse events were sent to the Duke Clinical Research Institute for adjudication by Clinical Events Classification (CEC) physician reviewers. The primary endpoint was a composite of major adverse CV events: CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), and nonfatal stroke.
Results
Overall, 416 nonfatal CV events in 366 subjects, and 22 deaths, were identified and processed for adjudication. Of these, 7 nonfatal MIs (4 bupropion, 3 placebo, 0 ACT), 5 nonfatal strokes (1 bupropion, 3 placebo, 1 ACT), and 9 CV deaths (4 bupropion, 4 placebo, 1 ACT) were confirmed by the CEC Committee. The primary endpoint occurred in 3/4297 (0.07%) subjects in the bupropion group and in 4/2927 (0.14%) subjects in the placebo group (log‐rank P value: 0.613).
Conclusions
CV events in bupropion clinical trials for smoking cessation were uncommon, with no observed increase among subjects assigned to bupropion vs placebo. However, this effort was limited by a paucity of quality data.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
The role of beta-blockers in patients with acute coronary syndromes is mainly derived from studies including patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Little is known about ...the use of beta-blockers and associated long-term clinical outcomes in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTEACS).
Methods
We analyzed short- and long-term clinical outcomes of 2921 patients with NSTEACS using or not oral beta-blockers in the first 24 h of the acute coronary syndromes (ACS) presentation. The association between beta-blocker use and mortality was assessed using a propensity score adjusted analysis (
N
= 1378).
Results
Patients starting oral beta-blockers in the first 24 h of hospitalization, compared with patients who did not, had lower rates of in-hospital mortality (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.74,
P
= 0.002) and higher mean survival times in the long-term follow-up (11.86±0.4 years vs. 9.92±0.39 years,
P
< 0.001).
Conclusion
The use of beta-blockers in the first 24 h of patients presenting with NSTEACS was associated with better in-hospital and long-term mortality outcomes.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Background Guidelines recommend that patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) have their glucose closely monitored and controlled in the perioperative period.
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Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Background The association of sustained ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF) with mortality in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may vary with baseline ...patient risk and may be associated with higher mortality in patients who have high-risk baseline features but not in the low-risk patient cohort undergoing this procedure. Methods Among the 5,259 ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) patients presenting for primary PCI from the APEX AMI trial, we evaluated the association of VT/VF with outcomes according to underlying risk for 90-day mortality estimated using baseline variables and with a Cox regression model. Results Ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation occurred in 3.6% (63/1,736), 4.9% (87/1,788), and 8.1% (141/1,735) of patients in the low-, intermediate-, and high-tertiles of 90-day predicted death, respectively. Ninety-day death was between 3.2- and 4.8-fold higher in patients with VT/VF compared with those without it in the 3 risk groups (low risk 1.6% vs 0.5%, intermediate risk 5.7% vs1.2%, high risk 33.6% vs 7.7%). Both early (during cardiac catheterization) and late VT/VF (after cardiac catheterization) were associated with high risk of death regardless of baseline risk category. Conclusions The incidence of VT/VF and mortality increased as patients' baseline risk increased, and VT/VF remained an important prognostic marker for the increased risk of clinical adverse events and 90-day mortality irrespective of underlying baseline risk in patients undergoing primary PCI. Thus, even in otherwise low-risk patients, occurrence of VT/VF helps to further identify higher risk cohort that may warrant closer monitoring.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Most patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and coronary artery disease have indications for preventing stroke with oral anticoagulation therapy and preventing myocardial infarction and stent ...thrombosis with platelet inhibition.
To evaluate whether the recently developed ABC (age, biomarkers, and clinical history)-bleeding risk score might be useful to identify patients with AF with different risks of bleeding during concomitant aspirin and anticoagulation therapy.
The biomarkers in the ABC-bleeding risk score (growth differentiation factor 15, hemoglobin, and troponin) were measured in blood samples collected at randomization between 2006 and 2010 in the ARISTOTLE (Apixaban for Reduction in Stroke and Other Thromboembolic Events in Atrial Fibrillation) trial and between 2005 and 2009 in the RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Long-term Anticoagulation Therapy) trial, both of which were multinational randomized clinical trials. The trials were reported 2011 and 2009, respectively. A total of 24 349 patients with AF (14 980 patients from the ARISTOTLE trial and 9369 patients from the RE-LY trial) were analyzed in the present cohort study. The median (interquartile range) length of follow-up was 1.8 (1.3-2.3) years in the ARISTOTLE cohort and 2.0 (1.6-2.3) years in the RE-LY cohort. Data analysis was performed from February 2018 to June 2019.
Concomitant aspirin treatment during study follow-up.
Time to first occurrence of a major bleeding was determined according to International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis definition. Hazard ratios were estimated with Cox models adjusted for ABC-bleeding risk score and randomized treatment.
The median (interquartile range) age was 70 (63-76) years in the ARISTOTLE cohort and 72 (67-77) years in the RE-LY cohort (5238 patients 35.6% in the ARISTOTLE cohort and 3086 patients 36.4% in the RE-LY cohort were women). The total number of patients with a first major bleeding event was 651 (207 with aspirin and 444 without) in ARISTOTLE and 463 (238 with aspirin and 225 without) in RE-LY. For both cohorts, in those with a low ABC-bleeding risk score, the absolute bleeding rate was low even with concomitant aspirin treatment, whereas in those with a higher ABC-bleeding risk score, the rate of bleeding was higher with concomitant aspirin compared with oral anticoagulation alone (ARISTOTLE, hazard ratio, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.40-1.95; P < .001; RE-LY, hazard ratio, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.42-2.04; P < .001). Thus, a low annual ABC-bleeding risk (eg, 0.5% without aspirin use) would with concomitant aspirin result in an annual rate of 0.8%, and a high estimated ABC-bleeding risk (eg, 3.0%) would result in a substantially higher rate of 5.0%.
These findings suggest that the ABC-bleeding risk score identifies patients with different risks of bleeding when combining aspirin and oral anticoagulation. The ABC-bleeding risk score may, therefore, be a useful tool for decision support concerning intensity and duration of combination antithrombotic treatment in patients with AF and coronary artery disease.