The Problem Of Treating Patients With Heart Disease Who Do Not Respond To Plavix

The Problem Of Treating Patients With Heart Disease Who Do Not Respond To Plavix.
Higher doses of the blood-thinner Plavix were no better at preventing spirit attacks, blood clots or extinction than the banner drop portion in patients who had received artery-opening stents, new investigation shows. The higher dose - hypocritical the usual amount - was tested in patients with "high platelet reactivity," implication they failed to respond to the drug at lower doses more. Plavix (clopidogrel) helps halt clots from forming in patients who have abysmal platelet reactivity and who have had stents inserted to prop air blocked arteries.

But the new study "doesn't support" physicians using the higher, 150-milligram administer of Plavix after stenting, according to inspect lead author Dr Matthew Price, who presented the findings Tuesday at the annual convocation of the American Heart Association in Chicago. So, the survey leaves an important question unanswered: How to investigate heart patients who don't respond well to Plavix? "It remains hazy to some extent," said Dr Abhiram Prasad, an interventional cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn as example. "It's an grave haunt to have done but the key issues are that a significant match of the patients remained with high platelet reactivity even after being on the higher dose".

Previous, smaller studies had indicated that Plavix might have more of an execute if the quantity was doubled. "Platelet reactivity varies widely," noted Price, chief honcho of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. He explained that numerous studies have shown that a superior reactivity au fait is associated with poorer outcomes after angioplasty and/or stenting. But until now, a extortionate rise in the prescribe of Plavix "has not been tested in a large randomized clinical trial".

For this trial, investigators tested a beneficent group of patients for platelet reactivity after they had undergone angioplasty to locale a drug-eluting stent. Drug-eluting stents exude medicines that help section off vessel re-closure. Over 2200 patients with high platelet reactivity were then randomized to inherit 150 milligrams a day of Plavix or the prevailing 75-milligram dose.

After six months, 2,3 percent of those taking either the higher or the discount dose suffered heart attacks, trained blood clots in their stents, or died, the researchers report. Those taking the higher dosage of the blood-thinner didn't have any worse bleeding than those taking the average dose, indicating that the higher dose of Plavix in this assortment of patients wasn't any less safe. The study was sponsored by Accumetrics, which makes VerifyNow, a investigation used to beat platelet function.

The makers of Plavix, Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb provided the drug, and precedent investigator Price also disclosed ties with pharmaceutical companies. "The annoyance does not support a remedying strategy of high dose clopidogrel in - patients with high-risk reactivity identified by a unwed platelet test". Still, Prasad said that higher imperil patient populations may neediness to be studied before drawing any firm conclusions about dosing verybigbreast.us. "Or dialect mayhap we need a more potent drug".