🔥 Drop Aspirin? Not So Fast in High-Ischemic-Risk Patients

🩸 Drop aspirin after 12 months? A-CLOSE says: not so fast. In 3,203 high-ischemic-risk patients after drug-eluting stenting, clopidogrel alone was noninferior to extended DAPT for net clinical events (5.0% vs 5.1%).

But beneath that reassuring composite was a striking trade-off: ischemic events were higher with clopidogrel alone (3.7% vs 1.6%; HR 2.33), while bleeding was lower (1.8% vs 4.1%; HR 0.43).

⚖️ The lesson: "noninferior" does not mean clinically interchangeable. Individualize ischemic versus bleeding risk. ❤️