Duration of eptifibatide infusion after percutaneous coronary intervention and outcomes among high-risk patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome: insights from EARLY ACS

Abstract

Background and Objectives:

Eptifibatide is indicated during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with continuation for 18–24 hours post procedure but is associated with bleeding. We examined the efficacy and safety of shorter post-PCI eptifibatide infusions in high-risk non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE ACS) patients.

Methods:

EARLY ACS patients treated with PCI and eptifibatide were grouped by post-procedure infusion duration: <10, 10–13, 13–17, and 17–25 (per protocol) hours. Adjusted estimated event rates for 96-hour death/myocardial infarction (MI)/recurrent ischaemia requiring urgent revascularization (RIUR), 30-day death/MI, post-PCI packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion, and GUSTO (Global Utilization of Streptokinase and Tissue Plasminogen Activator for Occluded Coronary Arteries) moderate/severe bleeding were obtained using inverse-propensity weighting to account for informative censoring of infusions.

Results:

Among 3271 eptifibatide-treated PCI patients, there were 66 96-hour death/MI/RIUR events, 94 30-day death/MI events, 127 PRBC transfusions, and 115 GUSTO moderate/severe bleeds. Compared with per protocol, patients receiving post-PCI infusions <10 hours had similar adjusted estimated rates of 96-hour death/MI/RIUR (absolute difference 0.021 higher; 0.040 vs. 0.019, 95% CI −0.023 to 0.064; p=0.35) and 30-day death/MI (0.020 higher; 0.046 vs. 0.026, 95% CI −0.021 to 0.062; p=0.34). There were also no differences in ischaemic outcomes between infusions of 10–17 hours and per-protocol infusions. Adjusted estimated rates of PRBC transfusion were higher for the <10-hour infusion group compared with per protocol (0.048 higher; 0.079 vs. 0.031, 95% CI 0.005 to 0.091, p=0.03) but were similar for other groups. Adjusted GUSTO moderate/severe bleeding rates were similar to per-protocol rates for all groups.

Conclusions:

In high-risk NSTE ACS patients, post-PCI eptifibatide infusions <18 hours were not associated with worse ischaemic outcomes. Shorter eptifibatide infusions in this population may be feasible.