Abstract Background The optimal duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) following second-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation is still debated. Objectives The aim of this study was ...to test the noninferiority of 6 versus 12 months of DAPT in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with second-generation DES. Methods The SECURITY (Second Generation Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation Followed by Six- Versus Twelve-Month Dual Antiplatelet Therapy) trial was a 1:1 randomized, multicenter, international, investigator-driven, noninferiority study conducted from July 2009 to June 2014. Patients with a stable or unstable angina diagnosis or documented silent ischemia undergoing revascularization with at least 1 second-generation DES were eligible. The primary endpoint was a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, definite or probable stent thrombosis, or Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) type 3 or 5 bleeding at 12 months. The main secondary endpoint was a composite of cardiac death, MI, stroke, definite or probable stent thrombosis, or BARC type 2, 3, or 5 bleeding at 12 and 24 months. Results Overall, 1,399 patients were enrolled in the study and randomized to receive 6 months (n = 682) versus 12 months (n = 717) DAPT. The primary composite endpoint occurred, respectively, in 4.5% versus 3.7% (risk difference 0.8%; 95% confidence interval CI: −2.4% to 1.7%; p = 0.469) at 12 months. The upper 95% CI limit was lower than the pre-set margin of 2%, confirming the noninferiority hypothesis (p < 0.05). Moreover, no differences were observed in the occurrence of the secondary endpoint at 12 months (5.3% vs. 4.0%, difference: 1.2%; 95% CI: −1.0 to 3.4; p = 0.273) and between 12 and 24 months (1.5% vs. 2.2%, difference: −0.7%; 95% CI: −2.1 to 0.6; p = 0.289). Finally, no differences were observed in definite or probable stent thrombosis at 12 months (0.3% vs. 0.4%; difference: −0.1%; 95% CI: −0.7 to 0.4; p = 0.694) and between 12 and 24 months of follow-up (0.1% vs. 0%; difference: 0.1%; 95% CI: −0.1 to 0.4; p = 0.305). Conclusions In a low-risk population, the noninferiority hypothesis of 6 vs. 12 months DAPT following second-generation DES implantation appears accepted for the incidence of cardiac death, MI, stroke, definite/probable stent thrombosis, and BARC type 3 or 5 bleeding at 12 months. (Second Generation Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation Followed by Six- Versus Twelve-Month Dual Antiplatelet Therapy; NCT00944333 )
Abstract Background Optimal upfront dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) duration after complex percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) remains unclear. Objectives This ...study investigated the efficacy and safety of long- (≥12 months) versus short-term (3 or 6 months) DAPT with aspirin and clopidogrel according to PCI complexity. Methods We pooled patient-level data from 6 randomized controlled trials investigating DAPT durations after PCI. Complex PCI was defined as having at least 1 of the following features: 3 vessels treated, ≥3 stents implanted, ≥3 lesions treated, bifurcation with 2 stents implanted, total stent length >60 mm, or chronic total occlusion. The primary efficacy endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACE), defined as the composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or stent thrombosis. The primary safety endpoint was major bleeding. Intention-to-treat was the primary analytic approach. Results Of 9,577 patients included in the pooled dataset for whom procedural variables were available, 1,680 (17.5%) underwent complex PCI. Overall, 85% of patients received new-generation DES. At a median follow-up time of 392 days (interquartile range: 366 to 710 days), patients who underwent complex PCI had a higher risk of MACE (adjusted hazard ratio HR: 1.98; 95% confidence interval CI: 1.50 to 2.60; p < 0.0001). Compared with short-term DAPT, long-term DAPT yielded significant reductions in MACE in the complex PCI group (adjusted HR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.35 to 0.89) versus the noncomplex PCI group (adjusted HR: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.75 to 1.35; pinteraction = 0.01). The magnitude of the benefit with long-term DAPT was progressively greater per increase in procedural complexity. Long-term DAPT was associated with increased risk for major bleeding, which was similar between groups (pinteraction = 0.96). Results were consistent by per-treatment landmark analysis. Conclusions Alongside other established clinical risk factors, procedural complexity is an important parameter to take into account in tailoring upfront duration of DAPT.
Summary Background The relative safety of drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents, especially with respect to stent thrombosis, continues to be debated. In view of the overall low frequency of ...stent thrombosis, large sample sizes are needed to accurately estimate treatment differences between stents. We compared the risk of thrombosis between bare-metal and drug-eluting stents. Methods For this network meta-analysis, randomised controlled trials comparing different drug-eluting stents or drug-eluting with bare-metal stents currently approved in the USA were identified through Medline, Embase, Cochrane databases, and proceedings of international meetings. Information about study design, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample characteristics, and clinical outcomes was extracted. Findings 49 trials including 50 844 patients randomly assigned to treatment groups were analysed. 1-year definite stent thrombosis was significantly lower with cobalt-chromium everolimus eluting stents (CoCr-EES) than with bare-metal stents (odds ratio OR 0·23, 95% CI 0·13–0·41). The significant difference in stent thrombosis between CoCr-EES and bare-metal stents was evident as early as 30 days (OR 0·21, 95% CI 0·11–0·42) and was also significant between 31 days and 1 year (OR 0·27, 95% CI 0·08–0·74). CoCr-EES were also associated with significantly lower rates of 1-year definite stent thrombosis compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents (OR 0·28, 95% CI 0·16–0·48), permanent polymer-based sirolimus-eluting stents (OR 0·41, 95% CI 0·24–0·70), phosphorylcholine-based zotarolimus-eluting stents (OR 0·21, 95% CI 0·10–0·44), and Resolute zotarolimus-eluting stents (OR 0·14, 95% CI 0·03–0·47). At 2-year follow-up, CoCr-EES were still associated with significantly lower rates of definite stent thrombosis than were bare-metal (OR 0·35, 95% CI 0·17–0·69) and paclitaxel-eluting stents (OR 0·34, 95% CI 0·19–0·62). No other drug-eluting stent had lower definite thrombosis rates compared with bare-metal stents at 2-year follow-up. Interpretation In randomised studies completed to date, CoCr-EES has the lowest rate of stent thrombosis within 2 years of implantation. The finding that CoCr-EES also reduced stent thrombosis compared with bare-metal stents, if confirmed in future randomised trials, represents a paradigm shift. Funding The Cardiovascular Research Foundation.
Heavily calcified unprotected left main (ULM) disease continues to be a challenging situation and represent a high-risk subset for interventional cardiologist. To date, there are limited data ...investigating the results after rotational atherectomy (RA) in this setting. The aim of this study was to investigate the in-hospital and 1-year outcomes after RA of heavily calcified ULM lesions. A retrospective cohort analysis was performed on all calcified patients with ULM (n = 86) enrolled in the multicenter international ROTATE registry (overall patients, n = 962). End points of the study were the in-hospital and 1-year incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE): a composite of death, myocardial infarction, and target-vessel revascularization in the ULM versus non-ULM group. Patients in the ULM group were older (p = 0.01) and more frequently with diabetes (p = 0.001) compared with the non-ULM group, whereas intravascular ultrasound guidance was higher, even if not systematic, in the ULM group (p <0.001). No difference was reported between ULM versus non-ULM groups in terms of in-hospital MACE (5.8% vs 8%). At 1 year, MACE rate was higher in ULM versus non-ULM (26.4% vs 14.9%, p = 0.002) mostly driven by target-vessel revascularization (20.3% vs 12.7%, p = 0.05). Even definite/probable stent thrombosis rate was higher in the ULM group (3.9% vs 0.8%). All these events were subacute and 2/3 (75%) were fatal. In conclusion, our multicenter experience shows that RA followed by stent implantation in patients with heavily calcified ULM narrowing is feasible and associated with good in-hospital results. Patient (age and diabetes) and procedural aspects (relatively low intravascular ultrasound guidance) may affect the worse subacute mid-term prognosis in the more complex ULM group.
The risk factor choice is the crucial point of the study, because in the "thin line" that exists between the invasive or noninvasive management of UA/NSTEMI patients, a fundamental role is played by ...the accurate knowledge of baseline clinical characteristics. ...as suggested by multidetector computed tomography studies, routine coronary anatomy assessment in low-risk patients presenting with acute chest pain and with a possible acute coronary syndrome is not useful in terms of clinical endpoints (12).
Oral drugs have made the treatment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) feasible in non-expert centers, which could delay patient access to prostanoid therapy.
Fifty-seven consecutive patients with ...precapillary PH received a prostanoid in our center. Data at prostanoid initiation included modality of center referral, medical history, New York Heart Association NYHA class, exercise capacity, echocardiographic parameters, and hemodynamics.
Overall survival at 1, 2, and 3 years was 85%, 69%, 55%, respectively. Non-survivors had worse NYHA class III/IV (17/12) than survivors (27/1; p < 0.01) and exercise capacity on 6-minute-walk distance (254 ± 114 vs 354 ± 91 meters; p < 0.01). Non-survivors were more frequently referred on oral therapy (83% vs 36%; p < 0.01) and had a higher rate of urgent prostanoid treatment (69% vs 17%; p < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis (hazard ratio 95% confidence interval) found the independent prognostic factors were urgent prostanoid therapy (2.0 1.1-3.9) and NYHA class (3.5 1.5-8.2). Survivors had a significant response to prostanoid, improving NYHA class from 2.8 ± 0.4 to 2.3 ± 0.5 (p = 0.002), 6-minute walk distance from 354 ± 91 to 426 ± 82 meters (p = 0.0001), and pulmonary hemodynamics (pulmonary artery pressure from 56 ± 13 to 44 ± 18 mm Hg p < 0.05; cardiac index from 2.0 ± 1.2 to 3.1 ± 1.2 liters/min/m(2) p = 0.002, and pulmonary vascular resistance from 17 ± 10 to 8 ± 6 WU p = 0.001).
Referral of patients on oral treatment to a tertiary PH center is delayed and significantly affects prognosis.
Different Prasugrel Administration in STEMI Patients Sardella, Gennaro, MD; Calcagno, Simone, MD; Mancone, Massimo, MD, PhD
Journal of the American College of Cardiology,
05/2016, Volume:
67, Issue:
17
Journal Article
In ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) impairment of microcirculatory function is a negative independent predictor of myocardial function recovery. In the Impact of Thrombectomy with ...EXPort Catheter in Infarct-Related Artery during Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI; EXPIRA) trial we found that manual thrombectomy resulted in a better myocardial reperfusion expressed by an improved procedural outcome and a decrease of infarct size compared to conventional PCI. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the early efficacy of thrombus aspiration translates into very long-term clinical benefit. We randomized 175 patients with STEMI with occlusive thrombus at baseline undergoing primary PCI to thromboaspiration with a manual device (Export Medtronic, n = 88) or standard PCI (n = 87). No differences in baseline, clinical, and angiographic preprocedural findings were observed between the 2 groups except for incidence of hypertension and cholesterol levels. After 24 months major adverse cardiac events were 13.7% versus 4.5% (p = 0.038, log-rank test) and cardiac death was 6.8% versus 0% (p = 0.012, log-rank test). A strict correlation was observed between cardiac death incidence and tissue reperfusion parameters (postprocedural myocardial blush grade and ST-segment resolution). In conclusion, manual thrombus aspiration before stenting of the infarct-related artery in selected patients with STEMI improving myocardial reperfusion significantly decrease cardiac death and major adverse cardiac events at 2 years.