DIAMOND - Dual Antiplatelet Therapy to Reduce Myocardial Injury

Heart attacks are most commonly caused by rupture of fatty deposits (plaques) within the wall of heart blood vessels. It appears that this process can also frequently occur without causing any symptoms and these events likely explain the development of narrowing within the heart arteries which can subsequently produce symptoms of angina (chest pain).

Previous research has shown a specialised scanner known as a PET (positron emission tomography) scan can identify these recently ruptured plaques in patients without symptoms of a heart attack and these patients have changes on a blood test (troponin) which suggest that they are at higher risk of having a heart attack in the future. This study aims to identify these patients using the PET scan and then see if the markers of increased heart attack risk can be reduced by the use of a blood thinning medication (ticagrelor) which is already a well recognised treatment for people who have suffered a recent heart attack.