Extended Clopidogrel Therapy Beyond 12 Months and Long-Term Outcomes in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Receiving Coronary Arterial Second-Generation Drug-Eluting Stents

We investigated the associations between extended clopidogrel therapy and long-term clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) after second-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation. Landmark analysis was performed in 1,600 patients who received second-generation DES and were event-free at 12 months after the index procedure. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause death or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) at 5 years after the index procedure. After inverse probability of treatment weighting analysis, the risk of all-cause death, or nonfatal MI was significantly lower in patients receiving clopidogrel >12 months than in those receiving clopidogrel ≤12 months in diabetic patients (13.9% vs 8.4%, hazard ratio [HR] 0.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.33 to 0.99, p = 0.046). However, no significant difference was observed in all-cause death or nonfatal MI between the two groups of patients without DM (5.0% vs 8.1%, HR 1.63, 95% CI 0.90 to 2.96, p = 0.11). Extended clopidogrel therapy beyond 12 months was associated with decreased risk of all-cause death or nonfatal MI in patients with DM after second-generation DES implantation. In conclusion, our data suggest that the benefits of extended clopidogrel therapy are more prominent in diabetic patients receiving second-generation DES implantation compared with nondiabetic patients.