A randomised study of dabigatran in elective percutaneous coronary intervention in stable coronary artery disease patients.

Aims: Patients receiving long-term anticoagulant treatment with dabigatran may need to undergo a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We studied markers of coagulation activation during elective PCI in patients using dabigatran in order to investigate whether coagulation activation upon balloon inflation and stenting is suppressed by dabigatran without additional heparin treatment.

Methods And Results: This phase IIa, exploratory, multicentre, randomised, open-label study included 50 stable patients having an elective PCI.