Association of Clopidogrel Therapy and Stent Thrombosis

Overview

The purpose of REAL-LATE (Correlation of Clopidogrel Therapy Discontinuation in REAL-world Patients Treated with Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation and Late Coronary Arterial Thrombotic Events) trial is to assess the relationship between clopidogrel use and long-term rates of cardiac death or MI after DES implantation in real-world practice and to estimate the duration of dual antiplatelet therapy for preventing the late thrombotic events.

An observational analysis from BASKET-LATE (Basel Stent Kosten-Effekivitats Trial-Late Thrombotic Events) examined the incidence of clinical events after cessation of clopidogrel therapy. This study identified 746 patients who were without major adverse events 6 months after drug-eluting or bare-metal stent placement. All patients had stopped taking clopidogrel and were followed up for an additional 12 months. At 18-month follow-up, there was no difference between patients with a drug-eluting or bare-metal stent in cumulative rates of death or myocardial infarction (MI). However, after clopidogrel discontinuation patients receiving drug-eluting vs bare-metal stents experienced higher rates of death and MI (4.9% vs 1.3%, respectively). These results have created uncertainty regarding the minimal necessary duration of antiplatelet therapy after drug-eluting stent implantation. Also, there remains widespread uncertainty regarding the risk of clinical events after the discontinuation of clopidogrel, particularly after DES implantation.

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Eligibility

Locations (13)

Outcomes