Grant: Project Grant

After a heart attack, long-term treatment with two types of blood thinners is usually recommended to reduce the risk of another heart attack or of other heart complications. The two blood thinners always include aspirin, a weak blood thinner, and a stronger blood thinner such as ticagrelor. However, taking two blood thinners can increase the risk of severe bleeding. We think that treating patients suffering from a heart attack with only one strong blood thinner like ticagrelor is still effective to prevent other heart attacks, and also reduces substantially the risk of bleeding compared with two blood thinners. This study will help establish if our hypothesis is true. In this study, we will recruit patients with a heart attack treated without a coronary bypass or the implantation of stents. Some patients will be treated with two blood thinners (aspirin and ticagrelor), as we usually do, and others will be treated with only one blood thinner (ticagrelor) for one year. The research team will follow the participants regularly during that year to ask them if they had problems such as bleeding, heart attacks, heart interventions, or other issues. We hope that this study will ultimately help doctors treating patients better by reducing the risk of bleeding after a heart attack, thereby improving patients outcomes.