Pharmacodynamic Profile and Prevalence of Bleeding Episode in East Asian Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes Treated with Prasugrel Standard-Dose versus De-escalation Strategy: A Randomized A-MATCH Trial

Compared with Caucasian patients, East Asian patients have the unique risk-benefit trade-off and different responsiveness to antithrombotic regimens. The aim of this study was to compare pharmacodynamic profile in East Asian patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACSs) treated with prasugrel standard-dose versus a de-escalation strategy. Before discharge, ACS patients with age <75 years or weight 60kg ( n =255) were randomly assigned to the standard-dose (10-mg group) or de-escalation strategy (5-mg group or platelet function test [PFT]-guided group). After 1 month, VerifyNow P2Y12 assay-based platelet reactivity (P2Y12 reaction unit [PRU]) and bleeding episodes were evaluated. Primary endpoint was the percentage of patients with the therapeutic window (85 <= PRU <= 208). The 250 patients completed 1-month treatment. The percentage of patients within the therapeutic window was significantly lower in the 10-mg group ( n =85) compared with the 5-mg ( n =83) and PFT-guided groups ( n =82) (35.3 vs. 67.5 vs. 65.9%) (odds ratio [OR]: 3.80 and 3.54; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.01-7.21 and 1.87-6.69, respectively). Compared with the 10-mg group, the bleeding rate was tended to be lower with de-escalation strategies (35.3 vs. 24.1% vs. 23.2%) (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.58 and 0.55; 95% CI: 0.30-1.14 and 0.28-1.09, respectively). PRU<127 was the optimal cut-off for predicting 1-month bleeding events (area under the curve: 0.616; 95% CI: 0.543-0.689; p =0.005), which criteria was significantly associated with early discontinuation of prasugrel treatment (HR: 2.00; 95% CI: 1.28-3.03; p =0.001). In conclusion, compared with the standard-dose prasugrel, the prasugrel de-escalation strategy in East Asian patients presented with ACS showed a higher chance within the therapeutic window and a lower tendency toward bleeding episodes. Registration URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier:NCT01951001.

Automated summary

Compared with standard-dose prasugrel, the de-escalation strategy in East Asian patients with ACS showed a higher chance within the therapeutic window and a lower tendency toward bleeding episodes.