After receiving a stent, patients on dual antiplatelet therapy can drop aspirin after three months without increasing their risk of death, a South Korean trial suggests.

The mortality rate in patients who stopped aspirin after three months and continued with a P2Y12 inhibitor alone was similar (2.9% versus 2.5%) to that of patients who remained on dual therapy for one year, according to data from nearly 3000 patients in the SMART-CHOICE trial.

But stopping aspirin reduced the risk of bleeding by about 40%, lead author Dr Joo-Yong Hahn reported at the American College of Cardiology World Congress in New Orleans, US, on Sunday.

“Our study demonstrated that P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy, after a short duration of dual antiplatelet therapy, is a novel antiplatelet strategy balancing ischaemic and bleeding risk in patients undergoing PCI,” said Dr Hahn, professor of medicine at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.