Safety of a high bolus dose of tirofiban in patients undergoing coronary stent placement.

To overcome the suboptimal platelet inhibition induced by tirofiban in the first hour after a percutaneous coronary intervention, a new regimen of 25 microg/kg bolus followed by an 18-hr infusion of 0.15 microg/kg/min has been proposed. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of this high bolus dose of tirofiban with those of abciximab on bleeding risk and 30-day clinical outcome in patients undergoing coronary stenting. We compared two cohorts of patients who underwent coronary stent placement between January 2000 and December 2002. In the first cohort, the only available IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitor was abciximab, which was given to 280 (34.9%) out of 802 stented patients; in the second cohort, tirofiban was administered to 274 (38.3%) out of 716 treated patients. The primary endpoints were the proportion of patients with major bleeding and the rate of site access complications; the 30-day incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) was also assessed. After the procedure, the patients were given ticlopidine for 4 weeks and aspirin indefinitely. Major bleeding episodes were observed in four patients receiving abciximab and in none receiving tirofiban (1.4% vs. 0%; P = 0.12); the rates of site access complications were similar (3.6% vs. 3.3%; P = 0.96). The 30-day incidence of MACE was 7.1% in the abciximab group and 5.8% in the tirofiban group (P = 0.65). In patients undergoing coronary stenting, the high bolus dose of tirofiban is safe and not associated with an increased risk of major bleeding or site access complications in comparison with abciximab. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.