First patient enrolled in DAPT duration trial

Abbott recently announced the first patient enrollment for a trial evaluating shorter-duration dual antiplatelet therapy in patients at high risk for bleeding after everolimus-eluting coronary stent implantation.

Typically, patients are prescribed DAPT for 1 year after receiving a stent. The trial will evaluate whether DAPT as short as 28 days is safe and effective in patients at high risk for bleeding who received the EES (Xience, Abbott), the company stated in a press release.

While antiplatelets are typically prescribed to patients who receive a stent to reduce risk for stent thrombosis, these treatments can potentially increase the risk of bleeding for some patients due to factors such as older age, chronic use of anticoagulant medications, anemia and renal disease, according to the release.

"While blood thinning medicines are important to prevent clots after a stent is implanted, we want to limit the duration of these medications for people who are at high risk of bleeding," Marco Valgimigli, MD, PhD, associate professor of cardiology and senior interventional cardiologist at the Universitätsspital in Bern, Switzerland, and co-principal investigator of the study, said in the release. "This trial will help determine if high-bleeding risk patients can safely reduce their duration of blood thinning medication to as short as 28 days."

Disclosure: Valgimigli reports he consults for Abbott; receives institutional research grants from Terumo and The Medicines Company; receives research institutional grants and personal fees from AstraZeneca; and receives personal fees from Bayer, Biosensors and Terumo.