Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) plays an important role for coronary revascularization in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Coronary stents is indispensable to prevent acute closure of coronary artery treated by PCI. Among PCI patients, dual antiplatelet therapy is an essential treatment for these patients to prevent both acute and late stent thrombosis, as well as cardiovascular events in chronic phase. The development of new generation thienopyridine derivatives also provides to decrease thrombotic events, but increase bleeding events. Moreover, patients combining both oral anticoagulant or no-vitamin K agonist oral anticoagulant, and antiplatelet therapy, are more susceptible to bleeding. Recent studies have shown the importance of following issues to manage CAD patients undergoing PCI: ischemic risk, bleeding risk and their clinical presentation (stable coronary artery disease or acute coronary syndrome). This review focuses on dual antiplatelet therapy in CAD patients undergoing PCI and its future perspectives.
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