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The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of ticagrelor as compared to clopidogrel based dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) during post-discharge management on the incidence of left ventricular (LV) thrombus in patients with first acute anterior ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). 641 patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups based on the receipt of either ticagrelor or clopidogrel based DAPT. Left ventricular thrombus was detected in 73 (11.4%) patients at the first month echocardiographic examination. Ticagrelor based DAPT was associated with significantly less incidence of LV thrombus when compared to clopidogrel [20 (7.4%) vs 53 (14.0%) OR: 0.50 (0.29–0.86)]. Penalized maximum likelihood estimation (PMLE) logistic regression analyses were performed to fourteen candidate variables for identifying the independent predictors of LV thrombus, ticagrelor (compared with clopidogrel) [OR: 0.53 (0.28–0.96), p = 0.039], body mass index (BMI) [OR: 0.58 (0.44–0.77), p < 0.001], KILLIP class (I vs II–IV) [OR: 0.35 (0.14–0.83), p = 0.017], age [OR: 1.22 (1.08–1.40), p < 0.001], poor postprocedural myocardial blush grade (MBG) [OR: 3.35 (1.32–8.15), p = 0.012] and LVEF predischarge [OR: 0.79 (0.72–0.86), p < 0.001] were found to be associated with LV thrombus. Our study demonstrated that the incidence of LV trombus was significantly lower with ticagrelor than clopidogrel-based DAPT during postdischarge treatment for anterior STEMI patients. • Left ventricular thrombus is a potential source of systemic embolization after STEMI. • Prophylactic treatment in addition to DAPT is not recommended after discharge. • Ticagrelor has faster and achieves more consistent P2Y12 inhibition than clopidogrel. • The incidence of left ventricular thrombus is lower with ticagrelor than clopidogrel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores include similar risk factors for the development of coronary artery disease (CAD), they may provide crucial information regarding the severity of coronary artery lesions and the risk of thromboembolism. To increase the likelihood of determining CAD severity, we formulated the CHA2DS2-VASc-HS score comprising hyperlipidemia and smoking in addition to the components of the CHA2DS2-VASc score and male instead of female gender. We aimed to investigate whether these 3 risk scores can be used to predict CAD severity. A total of 407 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography were enrolled in the study. Presence of >50% stenosis in a coronary artery was assessed as significant CAD. Of the patients, 87 had normal coronary angiograms and served as group 1. The remaining 320 patients with coronary stenosis were further classified into 2 groups according to CAD with stenosis of <50% or ‡50%: 123 patients with mild CAD as group 2 and 197 patients with severe CAD as group 3. The CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and CHA2DS2-VASc-HS scores were significantly different among the 3 groups. The CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and CHA2DS2-VASc-HS scores correlated significantly with the number of diseased vessels (r [ 0.406, p <0.001; r [ 0.308, p <0.001; and r [ 0.533, p <0.001, respectively) and the Gensini score (r[0.383, p <0.001; r[0.300, p <0.001; and r[0.500, p <0.001, respectively). The CHA2DS2-VASc-HS score was found to be the best scoring scheme to predict CAD severity in the area under the curve comparison of these scoring systems. For prediction of severe CAD, the cut-off value of CHA2DS2-VASc-HS score was >2 with a sensitivity of 85.2% and a specificity of 57.5% (area under the curve 0.802, 95% confidence interval 0.760 to 0.839, p <0.001). In conclusion, our findings suggest that the CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and especially CHA2DS2-VASc-HS scores could be considered predictive of the risk of severe CAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]