01- How To De-Escalate Prasugrel After Acute Coronary Syndrome? Patients who undergo coronary angioplasty after acute coronary syndrome could de-escalate dual antiplatelet therapy with prasugrel to maintain the protection against ischemic events while lowering their hemorrhagic risk. Read more HERE 02- Not All Coronary Spasms Are the Same: Benefits of Acetylcholine Patients with documented spasm...
Potent P2Y12 receptor inhibitors, such as prasugrel and ticagrelor, have been tested mainly in a setting of acute coronary syndromes. There is little evidence on stable patients, particularly for prasugrel. Designing a study with that purpose seemed challenging enough, but adding aspirin discontinuation in patients without a particularly high bleeding risk took this research to...
In 2020, the European Society of Cardiology guidelines for the management of patients with acute coronary syndromes without ST-segment elevation (Non-ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction, NSTEMI) were presented. This document went somewhat unnoticed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this seems a good time to review it and set out some practical “commandments” (something...
Patients who undergo coronary angioplasty after acute coronary syndrome could de-escalate dual antiplatelet therapy with prasugrel to maintain the protection against ischemic events while lowering their hemorrhagic risk. The HOST-REDUCE-POLYTECH-ACS study (recently published in The Lancet) included 2338 patients who underwent coronary angioplasty in a setting of acute coronary syndrome. Patients were randomized to a year-long...
Patients with a bigger number of complex anatomical characteristics that increase PCI complexity have worse results at one-year followup. These data come from a large multicenter study (e-Ultimaster) recently published in EuroIntervention. The more complex the characteristics, the greater the increase in events. It is important to see past the obvious anatomical challenges (bifurcations, calcification,...
Aspirin discontinuation 1 to 3 months after angioplasty with continued P2Y12 inhibitor therapy reduces the bleeding risk without an increase in thrombotic events. This is also the case for patients admitted with acute coronary syndrome. Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and a P2Y12 inhibitor has been shown to reduce the risk of major events compared with...
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral respiratory illness that can cause a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), predisposing patients to thrombosis (both in veins and arteries) due to excessive inflammation, platelet activation, endothelial dysfunction, and stasis. In addition, many patients receiving antithrombotic therapy for different indications may now become infected with COVID-19, which can...
In recent times, a lot has been said about reducing the duration or intensity of antiplatelet therapy following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) regardless initial indications. All evidence in support of these arguments might be failing to show the risk of non-culprit lesion events in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Potent and prolonged antithrombotic therapies...
01- Alternatives for Patients Allergic to Aspirin The new guidelines of chronic coronary syndromes make class IIb recommendations to use prasugrel or ticagrelor in aspirin-intolerant patients. This is not meant to replace dual antiaggregation therapy in aspirin intolerant patients, when needed; it is just a recommendation to use monotherapy with the most potent antiaggregant we...
Since November 2015, when the LEADERS FREE was published in NEJM, polymer-free drug coated stents had undoubtedly been the best treatment for patients at high risk of bleeding. The benefit was owed to the safety and efficacy of the polymer-free biolimus coated stent (also called umirolimus) vs. bare metal stents in the context of just...