Key clinical point: Even mild baseline thrombocytopenia is associated with a higher risk for bleeding events and all-cause death, but not for ischemic events, after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).

Major finding: During a 3-year follow up, the adjusted risks of moderate/severe and mild thrombocytopenia relative to none were neutral for primary ischemic outcome (HR: 1.07 [95%CI: 0.72-1.60], P=0.74, and HR: 0.93 [0.79-1.09], P=0.37, respectively). Risks were significantly higher for primary bleeding outcome (HR: 2.35 [1.80-3.08], P<0.001, and HR: 1.20 [1.03-1.40], P=0.02), and for mortality (HR 2.34: [1.87-2.93], P<0.001, and HR 1.26: [1.11-1.43], P<0.001).

Data source: The study examined baseline platelet counts in 19,353 patients in a pooled database from 3 studies in Japan of patients undergoing PCI. There were 2590 patients (13.4%) with baseline thrombocytopenia, which was mild in 2298 patients (11.9% of total patients), moderate in 277 and severe in 15.

Disclosures: One researcher reports expert witness fees from Terumo Japan and Abbott Vascular. Another reports honoraria from Medtronic Japan, outside the submitted work. The other authors declare no conflicts.

Source: Ito S et al. Am J Cardio published online March 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2018.02.010