DIAMOND - Dual Antiplatelet Therapy to Reduce Myocardial Injury
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2018-04-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Heart attacks are most commonly caused by rupture of fatty deposits (plaques) within the wall
of heart blood vessels. It appears that this process can also frequently occur without
causing any symptoms and these events likely explain the development of narrowing within the
heart arteries which can subsequently produce symptoms of angina (chest pain).
Previous research has shown a specialised scanner known as a PET (positron emission
tomography) scan can identify these recently ruptured plaques in patients without symptoms of
a heart attack and these patients have changes on a blood test (troponin) which suggest that
they are at higher risk of having a heart attack in the future. This study aims to identify
these patients using the PET scan and then see if the markers of increased heart attack risk
can be reduced by the use of a blood thinning medication (ticagrelor) which is already a well
recognised treatment for people who have suffered a recent heart attack.