Impact of new oral or intravenous P2Y12 inhibitors and clopidogrel on major ischemic and bleeding events in patients with coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis of randomized trials

Abstract

Objective: New P2Y12 inhibitors can be classified as oral (prasugrel and ticagrelor) and intravenous drugs (cangrelor and elinogrel). These P2Y12 inhibitors might be superior to clopidogrel for reducing ischemic events in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). We performed a meta-analysis of randomized trials that compared new oral or intravenous P2Y12 inhibitors with clopidogrel to determine their efficacy and safety in patients.

Methods and results: Twelve randomized, placebo-controlled studies and two subgroup analyses of included studies on ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) were included. The database consisted of 82,784 patients, with 43,875 (53%) on new oral P2Y12 inhibitors and 38909 (47%) on intravenous P2Y12 inhibitors compared with clopidogrel. The primary efficacy endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACEs). The primary safety endpoint was thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) major bleeding. New oral P2Y12 inhibitors significantly decreased MACEs (odds ratio: 0.85, p<0.0001 for the whole cohort; OR: 0.77, p=0.04 for STEMI) and all-cause death (OR: 0.88, p=0.04 for the whole cohort; OR: 0.77, p=0.01 for STEMI). Among new intravenous P2Y12 inhibitors, only cangrelor significantly decreased the risk of MACEs. An increase in TIMI major bleeding was observed only by prasugrel among the new P2Y12 inhibitors.

Conclusions: New oral P2Y12 inhibitors reduce ischemic events, but there is no obvious increase in major bleeding in patients with CAD, and the risk/benefit ratio is particularly favorable for STEMI patients. Moreover, only cangrelor is beneficial for ischemic events in patients on new intravenous P2Y12 inhibitors.

Keywords: Antiplatelet therapy; Coronary artery disease; Meta-analysis; P2Y12 inhibitors.