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Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the outcome of bare-metal stents (BMS) versus drug-eluting stents (DES) after on-label as well as off-label use. Background: DES lower restenosis rates while not influencing the risk for death and myocardial infarction when used in Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved indications. It is debated whether the clinical results of this so-called on-label use might be extrapolated to off-label situations. Methods: The SCAAR (Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty Registry) was used to investigate the outcomes in 17,198 patients who underwent stenting with an on-label indication (10,431 BMS and 6,767 DES patients) and 16,355 patients in the context of an off-label indication (9,907 BMS and 6,448 DES patients). The patients were included from 2003 to 2005 with a minimum follow-up of 1 year and a maximum of 4 years. The analysis was adjusted for differences in baseline characteristics. Results: There were not significant differences between on-label DES and BMS (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.02; 95% confidence interval: 0.92 to 1.13) or between off-label DES and BMS (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.95; 95% confidence interval: 0.87 to 1.04) use with regard to the incidence of myocardial infarction and death. Off-label use of DES did not lead to significant differences in the combined risk of death and myocardial infarction compared with BMS throughout the whole spectrum of clinical indications. Conclusions: In contemporary Swedish practice, neither on- nor off-label use of DES is associated with worse outcome than use of BMS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: The long-term prognostic impact of post-discharge bleeding in the unique population of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) treated without percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains unexplored.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the association between post-discharge bleeding and subsequent mortality after ACS according to index strategy (PCI or no PCI) and to contrast with the association between post-discharge myocardial infarction (MI) and subsequent mortality.Methods: In a harmonized dataset of 4 multicenter randomized trials (APPRAISE-2 [Apixaban for Prevention of Acute Ischemic Events-2], PLATO [Study of Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes], TRACER [Thrombin Receptor Antagonist for Clinical Event Reduction in Acute Coronary Syndrome], and TRILOGY ACS [Platelet Inhibition to Clarify the Optimal Strategy to Medically Manage Acute Coronary Syndromes]), the association between post-discharge noncoronary artery bypass graft-related GUSTO (Global Use of Strategies to Open Occluded Coronary Arteries) moderate, severe, or life-threatening bleeding (landmark 7 days post-ACS) and subsequent all-cause mortality was evaluated in a time-updated Cox proportional hazards analysis. Interaction with index treatment strategy was assessed. Results were contrasted with risk for mortality following post-discharge MI.Results: Among 45,011 participants, 1,133 experienced post-discharge bleeding events (2.6 per 100 patient-years), and 2,149 died during follow-up. The risk for mortality was significantly higher <30 days (adjusted hazard ratio: 15.7; 95% confidence interval: 12.3 to 20.0) and 30 days to 12 months (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.7; 95% confidence interval: 2.1 to 3.4) after bleeding, and this association was consistent in participants treated with or without PCI for their index ACS (p for interaction = 0.240). The time-related association between post-discharge bleeding and mortality was similar to the association between MI and subsequent mortality in participants treated with and without PCI (p for interaction = 0.696).Conclusions: Post-discharge bleeding after ACS is associated with a similar increase in subsequent all-cause mortality in participants treated with or without PCI and has an equivalent prognostic impact as post-discharge MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitral regurgitation is the most common valvular disease and is estimated to affect over 5 million Americans. Real-world data collection contributes to safety and effectiveness evidence for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, quality evaluation for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and hospitals, and clinical best practice research. We aimed to establish a minimum core data set in mitral interventions to promote efficient, reusable real-world data collection for all of these purposes. Two expert task forces separately evaluated and reconciled a list of candidate elements derived from: 1) 2 ongoing transcatheter mitral trials; and 2) a systemic literature review of high-impact mitral trials and U.S multicenter, multidevice registries. From 703 unique data elements considered, unanimous consensus agreement was achieved on 127 "core" data elements, with the most common reasons for exclusion from the minimum core data set being burden or difficulty in accurate assessment (41.2%), duplicative information (25.0%), and low likelihood of affecting outcomes (19.6%). After a systematic review and extensive discussions, a multilateral group of academicians, industry representatives, and regulators established and implemented into the national Society of Thoracic Surgery/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapies Registry 127 interoperable, reusable core data elements to support more efficient, consistent, and informative transcatheter mitral device evidence for regulatory submissions, safety surveillance, best practice development, and hospital quality assessments., Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures Dr Vemulapalli has received grants/contracts from the American College of Cardiology, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, National Institutes of Health (R01 and SBIR), Food and Drug Administration (NEST cc), Abbott, Boston Scientific, and Cytokinetics; and is on the advisory board or is a consultant for Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, American College of Physicians, and Total CME. Ms Alu has received institutional research funding from Abbott and Edwards Lifesciences. Dr Shahim has received a research grant from the Stockholm county research council. Dr James has been a proctor for Medtronic. Dr Leon has received institutional grants for clinical research from Abbott, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, and Medtronic. Dr Thourani has been an advisor for Abbott Vascular, ARtivion, Atricure, Boston Scientific, Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, and Shockwave. Dr Carroll has received institutional grants for clinical trials from Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, and Abbott; and has been a consultant for Abbott. Dr Krucoff has received grants from Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Mitre Medical, OrbusNeich, and 4C Medical; and has been a consultant for Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Mitre Medical, OrbusNeich, and 4C Medical., (Copyright © 2023 American College of Cardiology Foundation. All rights reserved.)

Purpose of Review: We assessed the differences in the 2020 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) versus 2015 ESC and 2014 American College of Cardiology (ACC) guidelines on the management of non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS)., Recent Findings: The recent publication of the 2020 ESC has provided a comprehensive series of recommendations on diagnosis and management of patients presenting with NSTE-ACS. However, there are discrepancies between the 2020 ESC versus 2015 ESC and 2014 ACC guidelines, creating uncertainty among clinicians in routine practices. Our investigation provides insights into several domains, including diagnosis, risk stratification, pharmacological treatments, invasive treatment, and special populations. Overall, it seems that the 2020 version of the ESC guideline for the management of NSTE-ACS provides the most evidence-based recommendations for clinicians; although due to the lack of validated investigation across some of the proposed recommendations, further longitudinal multicenter studies are warranted to address the current questions. Diagnostic algorithm in NSTE-ACS., Abbreviations: ACC = American College of Cardiology; CABG = coronary artery bypass grafting; CCTA = coronary computed tomography angiography; CMR = cardiac magnetic resonance; CS = cardiogenic shock; ECG = electrocardiography; eGFR = estimated glomerular filtration rate; ESC = European Society of Cardiology; GRACE = Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events; HF = heart failure; LVEF = left ventricular ejection fraction; MPI = myocardial perfusion imaging; MR = mitral regurgitation; NSTE-ACS = non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes; PCI = percutaneous coronary intervention; TIMI = thrombolysis in myocardial infarction., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Identification and management of patients at high bleeding risk undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention are of major importance, but a lack of standardization in defining this population limits trial design, data interpretation, and clinical decision-making. The Academic Research Consortium for High Bleeding Risk (ARC-HBR) is a collaboration among leading research organizations, regulatory authorities, and physician-scientists from the United States, Asia, and Europe focusing on percutaneous coronary intervention-related bleeding. Two meetings of the 31-member consortium were held in Washington, DC, in April 2018 and in Paris, France, in October 2018. These meetings were organized by the Cardiovascular European Research Center on behalf of the ARC-HBR group and included representatives of the US Food and Drug Administration and the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, as well as observers from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. A consensus definition of patients at high bleeding risk was developed that was based on review of the available evidence. The definition is intended to provide consistency in defining this population for clinical trials and to complement clinical decision-making and regulatory review. The proposed ARC-HBR consensus document represents the first pragmatic approach to a consistent definition of high bleeding risk in clinical trials evaluating the safety and effectiveness of devices and drug regimens for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention., (© 2019 The Authors. The European Heart Journal is published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology, Inc., by Oxford University Press. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial, and no modifications or adaptations are made.)

Competing Interests: Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and declare the following: SKJ reports grants and personal fees from AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boston Scientific, and Abbott; and grants from Jansen and Ted Med Co, outside the submitted work. RJM reports grants and personal fees from Amgen, Novartis, Merck, and Luitpold; grants from AstraZeneca, GSK, and Bayer; and personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim during the conduct of the study. EP reports personal fees from UCB Pharma, Eisai Inc, GW Pharma, Mylan, Livanova, Sun Pharma, Sanofi, Takeda, and Medichem; and other from Wiley and Elsevier, outside the submitted work. The Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, receives core funding from the chief scientist office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates. FRR is a recipient of the NOW Spinoza award.

Background There are limited data on how the combination of diabetes mellitus ( DM ) and chronic kidney disease ( CKD ) affects cardiovascular outcomes as well as response to different P2Y 12 receptor antagonists, which represented the aim of the present investigation. Methods and Results In this post hoc analysis of the PLATO (Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes) trial, which randomized acute coronary syndrome patients to ticagrelor versus clopidogrel, patients (n=15 108) with available DM and CKD status were classified into 4 groups: DM +/ CKD + (n=1058), DM +/ CKD - (n=2748), DM -/ CKD + (n=2160), and DM -/ CKD - (n=9142). The primary efficacy end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke at 12 months. The primary safety end point was PLATO major bleeding. DM +/ CKD + patients had a higher incidence of the primary end point compared with DM -/ CKD - patients (23.3% versus 7.1%; adjusted hazard ratio 2.22; 95% CI 1.88-2.63; P<0.001). Patients with DM +/ CKD - and DM -/ CKD + had an intermediate risk profile. The same trend was shown for the individual components of the primary end point and for major bleeding. Compared with clopidogrel, ticagrelor reduced the incidence of the primary end point consistently across subgroups ( P-interaction=0.264), but with an increased absolute risk reduction in DM +/ CKD +. The effects on major bleeding were also consistent across subgroups ( P-interaction=0.288). Conclusions In acute coronary syndrome patients, a gradient of risk was observed according to the presence or absence of DM and CKD , with patients having both risk factors at the highest risk. Although the ischemic benefit of ticagrelor over clopidogrel was consistent in all subgroups, the absolute risk reduction was greatest in patients with both DM and CKD . Clinical Trial Registration URL : http://www.clinicatrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT 00391872.

Importance: Mortality remains at about 5% within a year after an acute coronary syndrome event. Prior studies have assessed biomarkers in relation to all-cause or cardiovascular deaths but not across multiple causes., Objective: To assess if different biomarkers provide information about the risk for all-cause and cause-specific mortality., Design, Setting, and Participants: The Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes (PLATO) trial randomized 18 624 patients with acute coronary syndrome to ticagrelor or clopidogrel from October 2006 through July 2008. In this secondary analysis biomarker substudy, 17 095 patients participated., Main Outcomes and Measures: Death due to myocardial infarction, heart failure, sudden cardiac death/arrhythmia, bleeding, procedures, other vascular causes, and nonvascular causes, as well as all-cause death., Exposures: At baseline, levels of cystatin-C, growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, high-sensitivity troponin I and T, and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were determined., Results: The median (interquartile range) age of patients was 62.0 (54.0-71.0) years. Of 17 095 patients, 782 (4.6%) died during follow-up. The continuous associations between biomarkers and all-cause and cause-specific mortality were modeled using Cox models and presented as hazard ratio (HR) comparing the upper vs lower quartile. For all-cause mortality, NT-proBNP and GDF-15 were the strongest markers with adjusted HRs of 2.96 (95% CI, 2.33-3.76) and 2.65 (95% CI, 2.17-3.24), respectively. Concerning death due to heart failure, NT-proBNP was associated with an 8-fold and C-reactive protein, GDF-15, and cystatin-C, with a 3-fold increase in risk. Regarding sudden cardiac death/arrhythmia, NT-proBNP was associated with a 4-fold increased risk and GDF-15 with a doubling in risk. Growth differentiation factor-15 had the strongest associations with other vascular and nonvascular deaths and was possibly associated with death due to major bleeding (HR, 4.91; 95% CI, 1.39-17.43)., Conclusions and Relevance: In patients with acute coronary syndrome, baseline levels of NT-proBNP and GDF-15 were strong markers associated with all-cause death based on their associations with death due to heart failure as well as due to arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. Growth differentiation factor-15 had the strongest associations with death due to other vascular or nonvascular causes and possibly with death due to bleeding., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00391872.

Background: Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) are known to have an increased risk of ischemic cardiovascular events. However, the influence of concomitant PAD on first and subsequent recurrent ischemic events after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains poorly characterized., Methods: We analyzed the combined data set from 4 randomized trials (PLATO, APPRAISE-2, TRA-CER, and TRILOGY ACS) in ACS for a follow-up length of 1 year. Using multivariable regression, we examined the association between PAD and major adverse cardiovascular events, a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Among patients with a nonfatal first event, we evaluated the incidence and type of a second recurrent event., Results: A total of 4,098 of 48,094 (8.5%) post-ACS patients had a history of PAD. The unadjusted frequency of major adverse cardiovascular events was 2-fold higher in patients with PAD (14.3% vs 7.5%) over a median (25th-75th) follow-up of 353 (223-365) days with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.63 (95% CI: 1.48-1.78; P < .001). The frequency of recurrent ischemic events among those patients with a first, nonfatal event was higher among those with PAD (40.0% vs 27.7%). The relative frequency of each event type (cardiovascular death, noncardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke) within first and subsequent ischemic events was similar regardless of PAD status at baseline., Conclusions: Patients with PAD have a significantly higher risk of first and recurrent ischemic events in the post-ACS setting. These findings highlight the opportunity for improved treatments in patients with PAD who experience an ACS., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Adverse event collection in randomized clinical trials establishes drug safety. Although costly and regulated, it is rarely studied., Methods: Adverse event data from 4 clinical trials (APPRAISE-2, PLATO, TRACER, TRILOGY ACS) comprising 48,118 participants with acute coronary syndromes were pooled to compare patterns and determinants of reporting. Events were classified as serious (SAE) or nonserious (AE) from hospital discharge to 1 year; study end points were excluded., Results: In total, 84,901 events were reported. Of those, 12,266 (14.4%) were SAEs and 72,635 (85.6%) were AEs. Of all participants, 7,823 (16.3%) had SAEs, 18,124 (37.7%) had only AEs, and 22,171 (46.1%) had neither. Nonserious adverse events were distributed across system organ classes: general disorders (11%), infection (10%), gastrointestinal (10%), respiratory (9%), cardiovascular (8.4%), and other (35%). Serious adverse events had a higher proportion of cardiovascular causes (14.0%). Event reporting was highest after hospital discharge, decreasing rapidly during the following 3 months. In a Cox proportional hazards model, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (hazard ratio 1.58, 95% CI 1.44-1.74), heart failure (1.55, 1.40-1.70), older age, and female sex were independent predictors of more SAEs, whereas enrollment in Eastern Europe (0.63, 0.58-0.69) or Asia (0.84, 0.75-0.94) were independent predictors of fewer SAEs., Conclusions: Half of all participants reported adverse events in the year after acute coronary syndrome; most were AEs and occurred within 3 months. The high volume of events, as well as the variation in SAE reporting by characteristics and enrollment region, indicates that efforts to refine event collection in large trials are warranted., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: Non-ST-segment myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) can be complicated by high-degree atrioventricular (AV) block, asystole, or electromechanical dissociation (EMD), but these events are not well characterized in the contemporary era. This analysis assesses the incidence of and factors associated with these dysrhythmias in acute NSTEMIs., Methods: Patients with NSTEMI in the EARLY ACS, PLATO, and TRACER trials were included in the pooled cohort (N = 29,677). Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with in-hospital high-degree AV block and asystole or EMD, and Kaplan-Meier methods were used to assess mortality., Results: High-degree AV block occurred in 112 (0.4%) patients, asystole in 157 (0.5%), and EMD in 38 (0.1%). Pacemakers were inserted in 241 patients (0.8%) during the index hospitalization: 30 (12%) for AV block. Among patients with high-degree AV block, we observed more frequent right coronary artery lesions (47% vs 29%). Age, diabetes, lower heart rate, and lower blood pressure were associated with high-degree AV block. Higher Killip class, ST-segment depression, prior myocardial infarction, and peripheral vascular disease were most strongly associated with asystole or EMD. Ten-day unadjusted survival was 90% for patients with high-degree AV block and 43% for those with asystole or EMD., Conclusions: Although high-degree AV block, asystole, and EMD were infrequent complications of NSTEMI, they were associated with substantial short-term mortality. Only 1 in 8 pacemakers placed in NSTEMI patients during the acute hospitalization was for high-degree AV block., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The use of anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy during the management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) has been associated with improvements in short- and long-term clinical outcomes, regardless of whether patients are managed conservatively or with acute coronary revascularization. Translating the existing evidence for selection of the most appropriate antithrombotic strategy has been summarized in available guideline recommendations. Given the breadth of antithrombotic recommendations across existing U.S. and European guidelines, synthesis of these recommendations for practicing clinicians who treat patients with ACS are increasingly desired. Providing a summary of the similarities across guidelines while noting the areas where divergence exists becomes an important facet in translating optimal antithrombotic management in ACS for the treating clinician. This review highlights the important aspects of clinical practice guidelines that practicing physicians should consider when selecting antithrombotic therapies to reduce ischemic risk while minimizing hemorrhagic risk across all ACS subtypes.