Abstract
Introduction: Aspirin and clopidogrel are the most commonly
used antiplatelet agents, either alone or as dual therapy, in patients
undergoing CABG surgery to reduce organ ischaemia and mortality. The
systematic review aims to explore the resistance to the antiplatelet
agents, how to assess it, and the effect of resistance on the outcomes
in CABG surgery. Materials & methods: A systematic search is
carried out on MEDLINE via Ovid, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library
Database and Google Scholar until November 2021 to look for studies
evaluating the antiplatelet resistance in patients undergoing both
on-pump and off-pump CABG surgery. Only high-quality studies were
included after the risk of bias assessment. Results: A total of
17 studies, of which 3 randomised controlled trials and 14 observational
studies were included after inclusion criteria is applied. The incidence
of aspirin resistance ranges from 11-51.5%, whereas, clopidogrel
resistance is 22%. A wide variety of different assessment methods for
antiplatelets are reported. Antiplatelet resistance is a predictor of
vein graft occlusion, with up to 13 fold increase in occlusion rate.
There is no overall effect of aspirin resistance on mortality, stroke or
myocardial infarction, however, clopidogrel resistance leads to higher
mortality, MI and target vessel revascularisations. The effect of
cardiopulmonary bypass on antiplatelet resistance is not clear.
Conclusion: There is no uniform definition of antiplatelet
resistance. Assessment methods differ greatly and their results are not
interchangeable. Antiplatelet resistance is associated with a higher
rate of graft occlusion in CABG patients. Aspirin resistance does not
influence overall adverse outcomes, however, clopidogrel resistance
leads to worse outcomes.