Cangrelor (AstraZeneca) maintains platelet inhibition without major bleeding in Acute Coronary Syndrome patients

New data demonstrates that intravenous use of cangrelor, from AstraZeneca, was effective at maintaining platelet inhibition in patients on thienopyridines who required bypass surgery. The data is from BRIDGE, a multicenter trial in 210 patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) or treated with a coronary stent on a thienopyridine awaiting coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) to receive either cangrelor or placebo after an initial open-label, dose-finding phase. The aim was to determine whether cangrelor could be used as a "bridge" between discontinuing thienopyridines and surgery. In the randomized phase, a greater proportion of patients treated with cangrelor had low levels of platelet reactivity throughout the entire treatment period compared with placebo (98.8% vs. 19.0%; p<0.001). excessive cabg-related bleeding occurred in 11.8% vs. 10.4% in the cangrelor and placebo groups, respectively (p="0.76)." there were no significant differences in major bleeding prior to cabg, although minor bleeding was numerically higher with cangrelor. according to dominick j. angiolillo, director of cardiovascular research at the university of florida college of medicine in jacksonville, florida, results indicate that cangrelor provides effective maintenance of platelet inhibition with no apparent increase in major bleeding, despite numerically higher rates of minor bleeding prior to surgery, which however were mostly attributed to ecchymosis at the site of venipuncture. results were presented at the 23rd annual transcatheter cardiovascular therapeutics scientific symposium.>