Aspirin Combined With Ticagrelor or Clopidogrel in STEMI Patients With Diabetes Mellitus and Poor Glycemic Control Undergoing Primary PCI: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: The safety and efficacy of aspirin combined with ticagrelor or clopidogrel remain unclear in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients with Diabetes mellitus (DM) and poor glycemic control. AIMS: This study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor versus clopidogrel-based dual antiplatelet therapy in STEMI patients with DM and poor glycemic control undergoing pPCI. METHODS: We evaluated 2732 STEMI patients with DM and poor glycemic control who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) and were registered in the "Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China-Acute Coronary Syndrome (CCC-ACS)" program between November 2014 and December 2019. Using propensity score matching (PSM) and cox proportional hazards regression, we compared the in-hospital risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACCE), TIMI bleeding events, and net adverse clinical events (NACE) between patients receiving aspirin combined with either ticagrelor or clopidogrel. RESULTS: After PSM, the risk of in-hospital MACCE (HR = 0.545, 95% CI: 0.321-0.926, p = 0.025), Cardiac death (HR = 0.380, 95% CI: 0.149-0.971, p = 0.043) and NACE (HR = 0.728, 95% CI: 0.560-0.947, p = 0.018) was significantly lower in the ticagrelor group compared with the clopidogrel group (p < 0.05), while no significant difference was observed in the incidence of TIMI-bleeding events between the two groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Among STEMI patients with DM and poor glycemic control undergoing pPCI, ticagrelor use was associated with a low rate of MACCE, without an excessive risk of bleeding. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The information of clinical trial registration for CCC-ACS project can be found at http://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02306616.