An aspirin-free strategy for percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with diabetes: a pre-specified subgroup analysis of the STOPDAPT-3 trial

Abstract Aims Safety of aspirin-free strategy immediately after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes was unknown. Methods and results We conducted the prespecified subgroup analysis on diabetes in the STOPDAPT-3 trial, which randomly compared prasugrel (3.75 mg/day) monotherapy (2984 patients) to dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with prasugrel and aspirin (2982 patients) in patients with acute coronary syndrome or high bleeding risk. The co-primary endpoints were major bleeding events (Bleeding Academic Research Consortium 3 or 5) and cardiovascular events (a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, definite stent thrombosis, or stroke) at 1 month. Of 5966 study patients, there were 2715 patients (45.5%) with diabetes. Patients with diabetes more often had chronic coronary syndrome, heart failure or cardiogenic shock, and comorbidities than those without. Patients with diabetes compared to those without had higher incidences of major bleeding and cardiovascular events. Regardless of diabetes, the effect of no-aspirin relative to DAPT was not different for the co-primary bleeding (diabetes: 5.05% vs. 5.47%; HR, 0.92; 95%CI, 0.66–1.28 and non-diabetes: 3.99% vs. 4.07%; HR, 0.98; 95%CI, 0.69–1.38; P for interaction = 0.81) and cardiovascular (diabetes: 5.54% vs. 5.15%; HR, 1.08; 95%CI, 0.78–1.49 and non-diabetes: 2.95% vs. 2.47%; HR, 1.20; 95%CI, 0.79–1.82; P for interaction = 0.70) endpoints. The incidences of subacute definite or probable stent thrombosis and any coronary revascularization were higher in the no-aspirin group than in the DAPT group regardless of diabetes. Conclusions The effects of an aspirin-free prasugrel monotherapy (3.75 mg/day) relative to DAPT for major bleeding and cardiovascular events were not different regardless of diabetes.