The four-item PRECISE-DAPT score identifies coronary artery bypass grafting patients with increased risk for post-discharge major bleeding.

Aims: Early identification of patients with increased bleeding risk increases the possibility to individualize antithrombotic treatment. We validated the PRECISE-DAPT score, originally developed to estimate bleeding risk in patients on dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients.

Methods and results: All patients who underwent first time, isolated CABG in Sweden 2009-2020 and survived until discharge were included. The four-item PRECISE-DAPT score, based on age, estimated glomerular filtration rate, preoperative haemoglobin concentration, and previous spontaneous bleeding, was calculated in patients discharged on DAPT (n = 6 838), or antiplatelet monotherapy (n = 15 406). High bleeding risk was defined as a score ≥ 25 in accordance with previous studies and major bleeding as hospitalization due to bleeding. Associations were assessed by C-statistics and Cox regression models.Major bleeding occurred during the first postoperative year in 130 patients (1.9%) in the DAPT group, and in 197 patients (1.3%) in the monotherapy group. The score identified 32.9% of the patients in the DAPT group and 38.2% in monotherapy groups as having high bleeding risk. The area under the ROC-curve for the score was 0.67 (95%CI 0.62-0.72) for DAPT and 0.71 (0.67-0.74) for monotherapy. The hazard ratio for high bleeding risk vs. very low risk was 4.14 (2.07-8.26) for DAPT patients, and 4.95 (2.61-9.39) for monotherapy patients, both p < 0.001.

Conclusions: The PRECISE-DAPT identifies patients with increased risk for major bleeding after discharge following CABG with moderate accuracy. The accuracy is comparable to what previously has been reported for patients after PCI.