EuroPCR 2025 | 4D-ACS Study: One-Month Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Followed by Low-Dose Prasugrel Monotherapy

While dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) has long been the standard treatment for managing patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing coronary angioplasty, there is growing awareness of the need for a more patient-centered approach that will balance the ischemic protection offered by DAPT with the risk of bleeding complications.

4D-ACS, a randomized clinical trial conducted in Korea, included 656 East Asian patients with ACS, randomized 1:1 to receiving either one month DAPT with 100 mg aspirin and 10 mg prasugrel (with 5 mg reduced dose of prasugrel for ≥75 year-old or <60 kg patients), followed by prasugrel 5 mg monotherapy (DAPT-1M group); or the conventional 12-month DAPT regimen with aspirin and 5 mg prasugrel (DAPT-12M group). This study is one of the first to evaluate strategies for shortening or de-escalating DAPT.

Primary endpoint was net adverse clinical events (NACE) at 12 months, defined as a composite of death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization, and Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) type 2–5 bleeding.

Read also: EuroPCR 2025 | BALI Trial: Intravascular Lithotripsy vs. Conventional Lesion Preparation in Calcified Lesions.

At 12 months, NACE rate resulted 4.9% among DAPT-1M patients and 8.8% in the DAPT-12M group, meeting the criteria for both non-inferiority and superiority. The incidence of major bleeding was 0.6% vs. 4.6% (HR 0.13; p = 0.007) for DAPT-1M and DAPT-12M groups, respectively. Ischemic events remained comparable between the two.

Conclusion

The 4D-ACS showed a de-escalation protocol of one-month DAPT followed by low-dose prasugrel monotherapy is safe and feasible in ACS patients treated with drug-eluting stents (DES). This strategy improved safety by significantly reducing bleeding risk with no compromise of ischemic protection. Short DAPT followed by monotherapy represents a viable therapeutic alternative, which sets apart from the rigid paradigm of prolonged DAPT toward a patient-centered, risk-adapted model.

Reference: Jang Y, Park S-D, Lee JP, et al EuroPCR 2025.


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Dr. Andrés Rodríguez
Dr. Andrés Rodríguez
Member of the Editorial Board of solaci.org

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