Study: Plavix plus aspirin helps prevent strokes
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Taking the blood thinner Plavix along with aspirin helped prevent strokes and heart attacks in people with a common heartbeat abnormality that puts them at high risk of these problems, doctors reported Tuesday.
The treatment is for atrial fibrillation, a rhythm disorder that 2.2 million Americans have. It occurs when the upper parts of the heart quiver instead of beating properly. This allows blood to pool and form clots that can travel to the brain, causing a stroke.
The usual treatment is the blood thinner warfarin, sold as Coumadin and in generic form. But finding the right dose is tricky — too little and patients can have a stroke; too much and they can have life-threatening bleeding. Patients on the drug must go to the doctor often for blood tests to monitor their dose.
For these reasons, as many as half of patients take aspirin instead of warfarin, even though aspirin is much less effective at preventing strokes.
Dr. Stuart Connolly of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, led a study testing whether adding clopidogrel, sold as Plavix by French-based Sanofi-Aventis SA, could help.
The study involved 7,554 patients in the United States and 32 other countries who were not able or chose not to take warfarin. All were treated with aspirin; half also were given Plavix.
After nearly four years of followup, the dual drug treatment lowered a combined measure — heart attacks, heart-related deaths, strokes and blood clots — by 11 percent. There were 924 of these problems in patients on aspirin alone but only 832 in those also getting Plavix.
May 13th, 2009 at 2:32 am
great inf
May 13th, 2009 at 2:33 am
great information