Meta-Analysis of Duration of Dual Antiplatelet Therapy in Acute Coronary Syndrome Treated With Coronary Stenting

We aimed to evaluate if a shorter course of DAPT followed by P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy is as effective as a 12-month course with fewer bleeding events. PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Central were searched for randomized controlled trials of ACS patients comparing dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) for 1 to 3 months followed by a P2Y12 inhibitor to 12-month DAPT. Quality assessment was performed with the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias assessment tool. Five randomized clinical trials were included, with a total of 18,046 participants. Antiplatelet strategies were aspirin and P2Y12 inhibitor for 12 months compared with aspirin and P2Y12 inhibitor for 1 to 3 months followed by P212 inhibitor alone. Patients randomized to 1 to 3 months of DAPT followed by P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy had lower rates of major bleeding (1.42% vs 2.53%; OR 0.53; 95% CI 0.42-0.67; p < 0.001; I-2 = 0%) and all-cause mortality (1.00% vs 1.42%; OR 0.71; 95% CI 0.53-0.95; p = 0.02; I-2=0%) with similar major adverse cardiac events (MACE) (2.66% vs 3.11%; OR 0.86; 95% CI 0.71 - 1.03; p = 0.10; I-2 = 0 %) compared to 12 months of DAPT. In conclusion, shorter course of DAPT for 1 to 3 months followed by P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy reduces major bleeding and all course mortality without increasing major adverse cardiac events compared with traditional DAPT for 12 months. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.