Optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided drug-eluting stent implantation improves early strut coverage compared with angiography-guided angioplasty. No difference was observed in terms of strut coverage between permanent-polymer everolimus-eluting stents and bioresorbable-polymer biolimus-eluting stents. Short-term dual antiplatelet therapy may be feasible in selected patients with early strut coverage. This study sought to measure early strut coverage...
Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia and its combination with a history of acute myocardial infarction or coronary angioplasty is quite frequent. According to this study (recently published in JACC), in a real-world population, the combination of direct anticoagulant agents and dual antiplatelet therapy reduces significantly the risk of bleeding and provides similar thromboembolic...
A recent meta-analysis that will be published soon in JACC Intv offers evidence of benefit derived from short-term dual antiplatelet therapy for elderly patients. This is a patient group that has always been excluded from the major trials, while remaining one of the most challenging subgroups in which to balance bleeding and ischemic risks. The...
Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and a P2Y12 inhibitor is the treatment of choice for patients with acute coronary syndrome who undergo coronary angioplasty. Different oral P2Y12 inhibitors (clopidogrel, prasugrel, ticagrelor) present different characteristics as regards efficacy, risk for bleeding, cost, and timing of administration. In this sense, physicians frequently switch among drugs according to...
The DAPT study concluded that continued thienopyridine plus aspirin beyond a year after coronary angioplasty is associated with a decrease in the rate of stent thrombosis and major cardiovascular events. In contrast, there is a significant increase in moderate to severe bleeding when compared with continued aspirin alone. Based on the outcomes of this and...
Courtesy of the SBHCI. This study sought to assess the safety and efficacy of an everolimus-eluting stent with a biodegradable polymer (SYNERGY II) vs. a conventional stent (REBEL) in patients >75 years old with short duration of dual antiplatelet therapy. Before randomization, investigators recorded the planned duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (1 month for stable patients and 6 months...
Courtesy of SBHCI. This new device has, on one hand, an abluminal sirolimus coating, and on the other hand, a luminal CD34 antibody coating for EPC capturing, to potentially accelerate post-PCI reendothelization. Between 2014 and 2016, the study included 1496 patients undergoing acute coronary syndrome (ACS), receiving the new COMBO stent. These patients were randomized...
Several randomized studies have shown that dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) is as effective to prevent thrombotic events in the segment treated with PCI, as it is with the rest of the coronary segments. This is very clear. The problem is there are a series of adverse events following P2Y12 inhibitor discontinuation. This phenomenon called rebound effect, happens...
Courtesy of Dr. Agustín Vecchia. As TAVR is expanded to lower risk patients, complications become more relevant. As regards stroke, the PARTNER 2 and SURTAVI one year outcomes are 8.0% and 8.2% respectively. The mechanisms behind this complication have not yet been clarified and, therefore, neither have guideline recommendations in this regard (as we can tell...
The NIPPON trial (Nobori Dual Antiplatelet Therapy as Appropriate Duration) was a randomized study comparing a short dual antiplatelet therapy scheme (6 months) vs. a prolonged scheme (18 months) in patients receiving the Nobori drug eluting stent (Terumo, Tokyo, Japan) with a biodegradable abluminal polymer. It included 3,773 patients with chronic stable angina or acute coronary...