ABSTRACT

AIMS - To evaluate the impact of 23-month ticagrelor monotherapy following one-month dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on the rates of patient-oriented composite endpoints (POCE) and net adverse clinical events (NACE).

METHODS AND RESULTS - The rates of site-reported Academic Research Consortium (ARC)-2 defined POCE (all-cause death, any stroke, any myocardial infarction or any revascularization) and NACE (POCE or bleeding type 3 or 5 according to the Bleeding ARC [BARC]) were reported up to two-years by intention-to-treat principle in the randomized, multi-centre, open-label GLOBAL LEADERS study comparing two antiplatelet strategies in 15,991 patients undergoing PCI. The experimental strategy consisted of aspirin with ticagrelor for one month followed by ticagrelor monotherapy for 23 months, whereas the reference treatment consisted of 12-month DAPT followed by 12-month aspirin monotherapy. At two years, POCE occurred in 1050 (13.2%) patients in the experimental group and in 1131 (14.2%) in the reference group (HR 0.93, 95%CI 0.85–1.01, p=0.085). NACE occurred in 1145 (14.4%) patients in the experimental group and in 1237 (15.5%) patients in the reference group (HR 0.92, 95%CI 0.85-1.00, p=0.057). In prespecified subgroup analyses, no significant treatment-by-subgroup interactions were found for either POCE or NACE at two years.

CONCLUSIONS- The experimental treatment strategy of one-month DAPT followed by 23 months of ticagrelor alone did not result in a significant reduction in the rates of site-reported POCE or NACE, when compared to the reference treatment.