BRIEF-PCI: Brief Infusion of Eptifibatide Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a common treatment for patients with severe ischemic heart disease. In the majority of cases, the potent anti-platelet agent eptifibatide is administered (bolus followed by infusion for 18 hours). The principal reason to use eptifibatide for PCI is to prevent platelet aggregation and the associated ischemia and myocardial infarction (MI). With improved laminar flow following stenting, prolonged infusion of eptifibatide may no longer be necessary. We hypothesize that after successful stenting with good angiographic results, patients can have eptifibatide discontinued immediately without a higher risk of adverse ischemic outcome, i.e. death, MI or unplanned target vessel revascularization (TVR) by 30 days. MI is defined as creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) concentrations elevated to more than three times the upper limit of normal or new pathologic Q wave as seen on electrocardiograms (ECG). In order to prove this hypothesis, we estimate a sample size of 2,100 patients. Before embarking on a large-scale clinical trial, we propose a pilot study using serum troponin I elevation as a surrogate end-point. Troponin I is a sensitive biomarker of ischemic injury. The absence of troponin I release following PCI would suggest excellent short and intermediate term prognosis. For the pilot study, we seek to prove the hypothesis that following successful PCI with stenting, an abbreviated regimen of eptifibatide is not inferior to the standard infusion in preventing ischemic injury, defined as troponin I release if baseline value is normal, or as CK-MB more than 3 times upper limit of normal if baseline troponin I is elevated. For this pilot study, we estimate a sample size of 620 patients.