The Harvard Clinical Research Institute expanded its 20,000-patient, four-year dual antiplatelet therapy study into seven European countries.
The "DAPT Study" is investigating 12- and 30-month periods of therapy for drug-eluting stent recipients. After the a percutaneous coronary intervention , patients take a combination of aspirin and a thienopyridine antiplatelet medication to reduce the risk of blood clots.
The European Society of Cardiology currently recommends six to 12 months of dual antiplatelet therapy following a drug-eluting stent placement. The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Assn. recommend 12 months of the stent-thrombosis prevention therapy.
The countries involved in the study now include France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
The principal investigator of the DAPT Study, Dr. Laura Mauri, is an interventional cardiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and HCRI’s chief scientific officer. Mauri said in prepared remarks that “The lack definitive data regarding the risks versus benefits of continuing dual antiplatelet therapy beyond one year … remains a critical issue that has caused uncertainty in the global cardiology community.”
HCRI began the study with U.S.-based patients in October 2009.