Table 1.

Major differences in available medication and mechanical devices

	Europe	Japan
Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors	Tirofiban, eptifibatide, and abciximab are available	GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors are not available
P2Y12 inhibitors	The preferred P2Y12 inhibitors are prasugrel [60 mg loading dose and 10 mg maintenance dose once daily per os (p.o.)] or ticagrelor (180 mg p.o. loading dose and 90 mg maintenance dose twice daily)	Both prasugrel and ticagrelor are available, but the dose in prasugrel is different. [20 mg loading dose and 3.75 mg maintenance dose once daily per os]
Mechanical LV assist devices	Intra-cardiac axial flow pump (i.e., Impella) and intra-aortic balloon pump are available	Intra-aortic balloon pumps are still in use. Intra-cardiac axial flow pumps are used in selected institutions but are not widely available