Optimal Medical Therapy on Top of Dual-Antiplatelet Therapy: 1-Year Clinical Outcome in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome: The START Antiplatelet Registry

Optimal medical therapy (OMT) at discharge is recommended after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Few studies report the impact of OMT on long-term clinical outcome in a real-world scenario. We evaluated the impact of discharge OMT on top of dual-antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) on clinical outcome in the real-world ACS population of the Survey on anTicoagulated pAtients RegisTer ANTIPLATELET registry. The primary end point was major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event (MACCE), a composite of death, myocardial infarction, stroke, or target vessel revascularization. The co-primary end point was net adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event (NACE), based on MACCE plus major bleeding. Consecutive patients with ACS with 1-year follow-up were enrolled. They were evaluated at discharge for the use of a β-blocker, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin II receptor blockers and statins. Optimal medical therapy was defined as the use of ≥2 of 3 medications. At multivariate analysis, both MACCE and NACE were significantly higher in non-OMT patients than in OMT patients (MACCE 18 [19] vs 59 [9], hazard ratio [HR] = 0.44 [0.26-0.75], P = .002, NACE 19 [20] vs 67 [10], HR = 0.47 [0.28-0.79], P = .004). In this real-world scenario, OMT at discharge on top of DAPT seems associated with a better clinical outcome compared with patients discharged on non-OMT.