Personalized antiplatelet therapy guided by a novel detection of platelet aggregation function in stable coronary artery disease patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: a randomized controlled clinical trial

AIMS: A number of studies have attempted to demonstrate the benefits associated with personalized antiplatelet therapy guided by platelet function testing, which has led to disappointing findings. In this study, we used a new platelet function test to guide antiplatelet therapy in stable coronary artery disease (CAD) patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS AND RESULTS: In the present randomized controlled trial, a total of 2237 patients with stable CAD undergoing PCI were randomly chosen to be administered personalized antiplatelet therapy (personalized group; n = 1123) or standard antiplatelet treatment (standard group; n = 1114). The patients in the standard therapy group, without detecting the platelet aggregation rate, were administered a 75 mg/day clopidogrel maintenance dosage plus 100 mg/day of aspirin for at least 6 months after the procedure. For the patients in the personalized therapy group, the antiplatelet strategy was performed according to the maximum aggregation rate (MAR), determined using a novel platelet analyser, PL-12. If MAR > 55%, 90 mg ticagrelor was administered twice daily plus 100 mg/day of aspirin after PCI. If MAR ≤55%, 75 mg/day clopidogrel plus 100 mg/day of aspirin was administered after PCI. The primary endpoint was net clinical adverse events, which were a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, stroke, stent thrombosis, urgent revascularization, and bleeding [Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) definitions, Type 2, 3, or 5], in the 180-day period after randomization. The primary endpoint was reached in 58 patients in the personalized group, compared with 85 patients in the standard group [5.1% vs. 7.5%, hazard ratio (HR) 0.678, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.486-0.947, P = 0.023], on intention-to-treat analysis. We also found that the net clinical adverse events (including ischaemic and bleeding events) were significantly reduced in the personalized group at 30 days after PCI compared to the standard group (1.5% vs. 3.0%, HR 0.510, 95% CI 0.284-0.915, P = 0.020). We did not find a significant difference in major bleeding events at either the 30-day (0.5% vs. 0.3%, P = 0.322) or the 180-day follow-up (2.1% vs. 1.6%, P = 0.364) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that personalized antiplatelet therapy according to MAR can significantly improve the net clinical benefit 180 days after PCI.