Double Your Plavix, Double Your Fun…
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Double Plavix cuts risk from heart procedures
NEW YORK, May 11 (Reuters) - Treating patients about to undergo procedures to clear clogged heart arteries with double the typical dose of the anti-clotting medicine Plavix cut the combined risk of heart attack and cardiac death by half, according to an analysis of 10 studies.
The findings were presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions scientific meeting in Orlando, Florida on Friday.
Researchers found that giving patients at least 600 milligrams of Plavix before stenting procedures, rather than the standard 300 mg dose, cut the risk of major complications associated with blood clots, or thrombosis, by 50 percent. The higher dose did not increase the risk of serious bleeding, which is a concern with anti-clotting drugs, researchers said.
Plavix, known chemically as clopidogrel, is sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. <BMY> and Sanofi-Aventis <SNY>.
Interventional cardiologists give patients a loading dose of the medication before the procedures known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to protect against blood clots. Following the procedure, most patients take a lower daily dose of 75 mg for up to a year or more, depending on the type of stent used to prop open the previously clogged artery.
Researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing 10 studies involving more than 1,500 patients. Roughly half of the patients were pretreated with 300 mg of clopidogrel and the other half with 600 mg. A few received either 450 mg or 900 mg of clopidogrel, researchers said.
Overall, pretreatment with 600 mg or more was associated with a 50 percent reduction in the risk of cardiac death or nonfatal heart attack, both during the initial hospitalization and within 30 days of the procedure. The finding was deemed to be highly statistically significant.
In addition, there was no statistically significant increase in major or minor bleeding, researchers said.
Findings remained the same when the analysis was restricted to seven randomized controlled trials only, they said.
Further analysis showed that the higher the underlying risk of complications related to blood clotting, the greater the benefit from high-dose clopidogrel.
"The goal of antithrombotic management for PCI is to maximize protection from thrombotic complications during and shortly after PCI, while minimizing bleeding and costs," Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai, an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Turin, who participated in the study, said in a statement.
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