The DUAL-ACS Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Duration of Dual Anti-Platelet Therapy in Acute Coronary Syndrome
IRAS ID
214831
Contact name
David Newby
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Eudract number
2016-003596-22
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
We hope this study will show the best way of treating patients after a heart attack.
Coronary heart disease causes the most deaths worldwide and happens when small fatty lumps (plaques) build up, narrowing the blood vessels supplying the heart. If the plaques become disrupted a small blood clot can form reducing the flow of blood and oxygen to part of the heart muscle - and this sometimes leads to a heart attack or chest pains (acute coronary syndrome).
The standard treatment after an acute coronary syndrome is to give two blood thinning drugs. This dual anti-platelet therapy helps the fatty lumps heal in order to stop the heart attacks happening again - but thinning the blood can also raise the risk of bleeding. Several trials have shown that taking dual anti-platelet therapy does help stop heart attacks, but it’s not clear how long dual anti-platelet therapy should last to maximise this benefit but minimise the risk of serious bleeding. Recent evidence suggests that giving dual anti-platelet therapy for a shorter time is better because the risk of serious bleeding, or even death, is higher the longer it is given.
We want to test long and short durations of dual anti-platelet therapy in a Scotland-wide trial of 19,519 heart attack patients to settle this unanswered clinical question once and for all. Patients will be recruited from hospital wards and those who decide to take part will get (at random) dual antiplatelet therapy for either 3 months or 12 months. Patients do not need to do anything else for the study but we’ll look at their health records so we can collect data about their health to see which works best. Patients have been involved in the development of this study and will be involved in looking at progress of the study.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0013
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion