Pre-hospital management of acute coronary syndrome patients in Belgium and Luxembourg and other Western European countries.

Objectives: This sub-analysis of the EPICOR study describes pre-hospital care (PHC) patterns in Belgium, Luxembourg (Belux) and Western European (WEU) countries (Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Germany.

Methods And Results: EPICOR (NCT01171404) is multinational, observational study comprising patients with acute coronary syndrome hospitalized within 24h of symptoms onset, diagnosed with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-STEMI (NSTEMI) or unstable angina (UA). Of the 325 WEU centres, 37 were in Belgium and 1 in Luxembourg.

Projected inhibition of platelet aggregation with ticagrelor twice daily vs. clopidogrel once daily based on patient adherence data (the TWICE project).

Aim: Twice daily dosing is often perceived as inferior to once daily dosing due to a higher likelihood of missing a dose. However, more important is the extent to which drug action is maintained when doses are delayed or missed. We compared the estimated inhibition of platelet aggregation (eIPA) for ticagrelor twice daily and clopidogrel once daily, based on their pharmacokinetic/ pharmacodynamic relationships and patient dosing history data.