ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Medica 2019 October;110(5):410-8

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4806.19.05859-2

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Under-prescription of novel antiplatelet drugs in patients with acute coronary syndrome and previous cardiovascular disease

Esteban ORENES-PIÑERO ¹ ✉, María A. ESTEVE-PASTOR ¹, Juan M. RUIZ-NODAR ², Miriam QUINTANA-GINER ¹, Andrea VELIZ-MARTÍNEZ ¹, Antonio TELLO-MONTOLIÚ ¹, Manuel J. MACÍAS-VILLANEGO ², Vicente PERNÍAS-ESCRIG ³, Nuria VICENTE-IBARRA ³, Luna CARRILLO-ALEMÁN ², Miriam SANDÍN-ROLLÁN ², Juan MARTÍNEZ ², Teresa LOZANO ², José M. RIVERA-CARAVACA ¹, Francisco MARÍN ¹

¹ Department of Cardiology, Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital, (IMIB-Arrixaca), CIBERCV, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain; ² Department of Cardiology, General University Hospital of Alicante, Alicante, Spain; ³ Department of Cardiology, General University Hospital of Elche, Alicante, Spain

BACKGROUND: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and previous cardiovascular disease (CVD) (stroke, peripheral arterial disease [PAD] or coronary artery disease [CAD]) are at high risk of serious events and mortality. Current clinical guidelines recommend new antiplatelet drugs (NADs) for high cardiovascular risk patients with ACS; however, these drugs are underused in different scenarios.
METHODS: This study included 1717 ACS patients from 3 tertiary hospitals. Of them, 641 (37.33%) suffered from previous CVD: 149 patients with stroke, 154 patients with PAD and 541 patients with CAD. Bleeding, mortality and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) at 1 year of follow-up after hospital discharge were analyzed.
RESULTS: NADs administration during hospital stay and at discharge was less frequent in patients with previous CVDs (P<0.001, for both). Cox analysis in this cohort of patients showed that clopidogrel prescription at discharge was independently associated with MACEs (HR: 1.59 [95% CI: 1.03-2.45]; P=0.036) and with death (HR: 1.99 [95% CI: 1.00-3.98]; P=0.049) in multivariate analysis. More specifically, when ticagrelor prescription at discharge was compared with clopidogrel, a significant death reduction was found in both, the univariate and the multivariate Cox analysis (HR: 4.54 [95% CI: 2.26-9.13]; P<0.001 and HR: 2.61 [95% CI: 1.16-5.90]; P=0.021, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS: New antiplatelet drugs, especially ticagrelor, showed lower rates of mortality in patients with CVD without differences for bleeding. Despite the recommendations of current clinical guidelines for high risk patients with ACS, the use of NADs is very low in “real-life” patients with previous CVD.

KEY WORDS: Acute coronary syndrome; Cardiovascular diseases; Ticagrelor; Hemorrhage; Mortality