OBJECTIVES We evaluated safety and efficacy of triple antiplatelet therapy with aspirin, clopidogrel, or ticlopidine and cilostazol after coronary stenting. BACKGROUND Triple antiplatelet therapy might have beneficial effect to prevent thrombotic complications in patients undergoing coronary stenting. METHODS Patients undergoing successful coronary stenting were divided into dual antiplatel...

Antiplatelet agents are central to the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. Although aspirin is the most widely used agent, randomized trials have assessed whether adding clopidogrel to aspirin ("dual-antiplatelet therapy") offers additional benefit with acceptable safety. Unfortunately, these trials have reached conflicting results, in part because of the heterogenous population...

Stent thrombosis is rare but can lead to potential severe consequence. The incidence is relative higher in drug-eluting sent than bare-metal stent implantation. Dual antiplatelet therapy is the major treatment to avoid early and late stent thrombosis. Simultaneous two stents thrombosis is rare. Although mechanical or/and procedure factors may predispose to stent thrombosis occurred, simultaneou...

BACKGROUND The Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Study is large streamlined clinical trial designed to evaluate antiplatelet treatment strategies in a broadly inclusive population of subjects treated with coronary stents. Whether large streamlined trials can successfully include a representative group of study sites and patients has not been formally assessed. METHODS AND RESULTS Within the National ...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate whether omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are able to modify platelet responsiveness to dual antiplatelet therapy in stable coronary artery disease patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). BACKGROUND Although previous studies have suggested antiplatelet properties of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, it ...

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of saphenous vein graft (SVG) is associated with higher adverse event rates, lower procedural success, and inferior longterm patency rates compared with native vessel PCI. The ability to comply with dual antiplatelet therapy, and whether the patient will need an interruption in dual antiplatelet therapy, should be considered when deciding whether to impl...

BACKGROUND Multiple scores have been proposed to stratify bleeding risk, but their value to guide dual antiplatelet therapy duration has never been appraised. We compared the performance of the CRUSADE (Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes With Early Implementation of the ACC/AHA Guidelines), ACUITY (Acute Catheterization and Urgent Intervention Tr...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE No approved acute therapy exists for thousands of patients with ischemic stroke who present ineligible for thrombolytics. The purpose of this proof-of-concept study was to evaluate the efficacy of acute antiplatelet loading on stroke outcome in the rabbit small clot embolic model. METHODS Sixty male New Zealand white rabbits were embolized via small clots into the middl...

AIMS To compare dual vs. triple antiplatelet pre-treatment in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE ACS) who were planned for early catheterization. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 328 consecutive patients with NSTE ACS were included and were randomized to pre-treatment with dual (n = 166, aspirin, clopidogrel 600 mg) or triple antiplatelet therapy (n = 162, aspirin, clo...

BACKGROUND Lacunar infarcts are a frequent type of stroke caused mainly by cerebral small-vessel disease. The effectiveness of antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention has not been defined. METHODS We conducted a double-blind, multicenter trial involving 3020 patients with recent symptomatic lacunar infarcts identified by magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were randomly assigned to rec...