Journal of interventional cardiology
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Current clinical guidelines recommend dual antiplatelet agents namely aspirin and clopidogrel for the treatment of patients suffering from acute coronary syndrome (ACS). But the efficacy of clopidogrel is variable as it is a pro-drug, which has to be metabolized to become an active drug thus exhibiting variable platelet inhibition, increases risk of bleeding, stent thrombosis, and ischemia. ⋯ Finally, a novel reversible and direct-acting oral adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor antagonist, ticagrelor was developed that showed consistent and increased P2Y12 inhibition with similar incidence of bleeding but greater reduction in cardiac events compared to clopidogrel. The focus of this article is to review ticagrelor as a new class of P2Y12 inhibitor.