Comparison of 4 different strategies of DAPT after PCI in ACS real world population from a Northern Italy registry

Aim of the study was to compare four different strategies of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) treated with PCI. DAPT with Clopidogrel, Ticagrelor and Prasugrel has proved to be effective in patients with ACS treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by reducing major adverse cardiovascular outcomes (MACE). However, the effect of the different strategies in a real-world population deserves further verification. A retrospective analysis of 2404 discharged ACS patients treated with PCI was performed, with a median follow-up of 1 year. The study population was stratified in four drug treatment cohorts: ASA + Clopidogrel (A-C), ASA + Plavix (A-PLx), ASA + Ticagrelor (A-T), ASA + Prasugrel (A-P). We assessed the incidence of net adverse cardiovascular events (NACE): all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI), target vessel revascularization (TVR), stroke and bleeding during follow-up. At 1-year, the use of A-C and A-PLx was associated with the highest cumulative incidence of NACE in comparison with A-T and A-P therapies (respectively 14.8 and 29.6% vs. 9.2 and 6%). This difference was mainly driven by the mortality and TVR outcomes. Considering selection bias and differences in the patients baseline characteristics, the association of A-T and A-P seems to be superior in comparison with a DAPT strategy of A-C and A-PLx in low risk ACS-PCI patients from real world. In our Region the prescription is consistent with guidelines recommendations and Clopidogrel and Plavix are still predominantly used in older patients with more comorbidities, and this could partially explain the inferiority of this association.