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Editor’s note: Coronary stents are deployed during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to maintain coronary artery lumen patency. The use of drug-eluting stents (DES) reduces the risk of restenosis due to endothelial hyperplasia, but this procedure is associated with the need for prolonged treatment with dual antiplatelet therapy (aspirin and clopidogrel) to prevent late stent thrombosis. Dual antiplatelet therapy is recommended by the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
(http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG94/Guidance) for 12 months in patients with acute coronary syndromes, but it is not known if there is benefit in extending this beyond 12 months in patients receiving DES.