Association of clopidogrel resistance and ABCD-GENE score with long-term clinical prognosis in patients with ischemic stroke or TIA.

BACKGROUND: Clopidogrel resistance (CR) is associated with adverse clinical outcomes in acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients. However, whether CR affects the long-term clinical prognosis remains to be clarified. The ABCD-GENE score is a novel risk model that identifies CR in cardiovascular disease patients; its diagnostic ability and application in ischemic stroke or TIA remain to be studied. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic ability of the ABCD-GENE score for CR and analyze the relationship between CR and long-term clinical prognosis in patients with ischemic stroke or TIA.

METHODS: From January 2018 to January 2021, 251 ischemic stroke or TIA patients who were treated with clopidogrel for more than three months after onset and maintained the medication until the follow-up time were enrolled, and platelet reactivity was detected by thromboelastography. CYP2C19 gene analysis was performed. Adverse clinical outcomes were recorded from 3months after onset. The median follow-up time was 878days.

RESULTS: The prevalence of CR was 33.9%. The proportion of CYP2C19 loss-of-function carriers was 62.2%. The ABCD-GENE score≥10 was independently associated with CR (OR=1.82, 95% CI: 1.02-3.24, P=0.041), and the C-statistic value of the score (as a binary and integer variable) on CR was 0.58 and 0.63, respectively. The risk of long-term adverse clinical outcomes was not significantly different between CR and clopidogrel sensitive groups (12.94% vs. 11.44%, HR=1.22, 95% CI: 0.57-2.62, P=0.603). A similar result was observed between ABCD-GENE score≥10 and ABCD-GENE score<10 groups (10.38% vs. 12.64%, HR=1.19, 95% CI: 0.55-2.60, P=0.666).

CONCLUSIONS: In ischemic stroke or TIA patients, the ABCD-GENE score could identify the risk of CR. CR was not associated with long-term adverse clinical outcomes.