Validation of the Academic Research Consortium for High Bleeding Risk criteria in Chinese patients with atrial fibrillation and acute coronary syndrome or undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

Background: This study aims to validate the Academic Research Consortium for High Bleeding Risk (ARC-HBR) criteria in Chinese patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) who received both oral anticoagulants (OAC) and antiplatelet therapy (APT).& nbsp;Methods: 930 consecutive patients with AF and ACS or undergoing PCI receiving both OAC and APT were recruited and followed up for 1 year. The primary endpoint was BARC type 3 or 5 bleeding. The secondary endpoints included BARC type 2, 3, or 5 bleeding, TIMI major bleeding, TIMI major or minor bleeding, and major adverse cardiovascular events (a composite of all-cause death, stroke, non-central nervous system embolism, myocardial infarction, definite or probable stent thrombosis, and target vessel revascularization). Cox regressions were performed to evaluate the association between the ARC-HBR score and outcomes. Discrimination was evaluated through analysis of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI).& nbsp;Results: Compared to patients with no HBR other than OAC, patients with HBR besides OAC tended to have more comorbidities and worse outcomes. The ARC-HBR score was significantly associated with the primary and secondary endpoints, both as a continuous variable and as a categorical variable. The ARC-HBR score performed better than the HAS-BLED score (c-statistic: 0.692 vs. 0.575, NRI = 0.313, IDI = 0.061) and the PRECISE-DAPT score (c-statistic: 0.692 vs. 0.616, NRI = 0.393, IDI = 0.049).& nbsp;Conclusions: In patients with AF and ACS or undergoing PCI receiving both OAC and APT, the ARC-HBR score was a significant predictor of 1-year bleeding and ischemic endpoints. The ARC-HBR score performed better than the HAS-BLED score and the PRECISE-DAPT score in BARC type 3 or 5 bleeding prediction.