• Eliano Pio Navarese, Felicita Andreotti, Volker Schulze, Michalina Kołodziejczak, Antonino Buffon, Marc Brouwer, Francesco Costa, Mariusz Kowalewski, Gianfranco Parati, Gregory Y H Lip, Malte Kelm, and Marco Valgimigli.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany Systematic Investigation and Research on Interventions and Outcomes (SIRIO) MEDICINE research network, Düsseldorf, Germany eliano.navarese@alice.it.
• BMJ. 2015 Jan 1;350:h1618.

ObjectiveTo assess the benefits and risks of short term (<12 months) or extended (>12 months) dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) versus standard 12 month therapy, following percutaneous coronary intervention with drug eluting stents.DesignMeta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Data SourcesPubMed, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and major congress proceedings, searched from 1 January 2002 to 16 February 2015.Review MethodsTrials comparing short term (<12 months) or extended (>12 months) DAPT regimens with standard 12 month duration of therapy. Primary outcomes were cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, major bleeding, and all cause mortality.Results10 randomised controlled trials (n=32,287) were included. Compared to 12 month DAPT, a short term course of therapy was associated with a significant reduction in major bleeding (odds ratio 0.58 (95% confidence interval 0.36 to 0.92); P=0.02) with no significant differences in ischaemic or thrombotic outcomes. Extended versus 12 month DAPT yielded a significant reduction in the odds of myocardial infarction (0.53 (0.42 to 0.66); P<0.001) and stent thrombosis (0.33 (0.21 to 0.51); P<0.001), but more major bleeding (1.62 (1.26 to 2.09); P<0.001). All cause but not cardiovascular death was also significantly increased (1.30 (1.02 to 1.66); P=0.03).ConclusionsCompared with a standard 12 month duration, short term DAPT (<12 months) after drug eluting stent implementation yields reduced bleeding with no apparent increase in ischaemic complications, and could be considered for most patients. In selected patients with low bleeding risk and very high ischaemic risk, extended DAPT (>12 months) could be considered. The increase in all cause but not cardiovascular death with extended DAPT requires further investigation.© Navarese et al 2015.

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