• Philip Urban, Alex Abizaid, Bernard Chevalier, Samantha Greene, Ian Meredith, Marie-Claude Morice, and Stuart Pocock.
• Hôpital de la Tour, Geneva, Switzerland. philip.urban@latour.ch
• Am. Heart J. 2013 May 1;165(5):704-9.

Background And RationaleMajor bleeding is a powerful predictor of morbidity and mortality after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). To avoid prolonged dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), current guidelines recommend using a bare metal stent when PCI is indicated to treat patients at high risk of bleeding. The Biolimus A9-coated BioFreedom is a new stainless steel drug-coated stent devoid of polymer and has been shown to be associated with a low median late-loss of 0.17 mm at 12 months of follow-up. In an animal model, 98% of the drug has diffused into the vessel wall at 1 month. It is therefore reasonable to consider that such a device may have a potential safety advantage, and a lesser dependence on prolonged DAPT than a polymer-coated drug-eluting stent.Trial DesignA total of 2456 patients considered at high risk of bleeding will be randomized in a double-blind fashion to the BioFreedom drug-coated stent or to a control arm (Gazelle bare metal stent). Both groups will be treated with DAPT during 1 month only, followed by long-term aspirin alone. At 1-year follow-up, the primary safety endpoint (a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction and stent thrombosis) will be assessed by a non-inferiority analysis, and the primary efficacy endpoint (clinically driven target lesion revascularization) by a superiority analysis.ConclusionsThis trial should help better characterize a neglected subset of PCI patients and quantify both their thrombotic and bleeding risks. It has the potential to decrease the need for target lesion revascularization in patients unable to tolerate a prolonged course of DAPT and will assess the shortest DAPT course ever used with an active stent.Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

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