DR. WEEKS’ COMMENT:
Question: “What is wrong with Aspirin?”
Answer: “It is not expensive enough to be useful as a profit center and, when commonly used for serious health concerns, it lowers revenues of pharmaceutical companies and hospitals.”
A recent published study (Bhatt DL, Fox KA, Hacke W, et al. Clopidogrel and Aspirin versus Aspirin Alone for the Prevention of Atherothrombotic Events. N Engl J Med 2006;354.) compared the cardiovascular outcome of two groups…one took plavex plus aspirin (ASA) (80mg), and the other just asa….the results showed that the addition of plavex had no effect over asa by itself other than to rather dramatically increase hospitalizations for bleeding side effects and dramatically reduce the wallet weight of those taking it….the incidences of cardiovascular events was the same in both groups….
Clopidogrel and aspirin versus aspirin alone for the prevention of atherothrombotic events.
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, USA.
BACKGROUND: Dual antiplatelet therapy with clopidogrel plus low-dose aspirin has not been studied in a broad population of patients at high risk for atherothrombotic events.
METHODS: We randomly assigned 15,603 patients with either clinically evident cardiovascular disease or multiple risk factors to receive clopidogrel (75 mg per day) plus low-dose aspirin (75 to 162 mg per day) or placebo plus low-dose aspirin and followed them for a median of 28 months. The primary efficacy end point was a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes.
RESULTS: The rate of the primary efficacy end point was 6.8 percent with clopidogrel plus aspirin and 7.3 percent with placebo plus aspirin (relative risk, 0.93; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.83 to 1.05; P=0.22). The respective rate of the principal secondary efficacy end point, which included hospitalizations for ischemic events, was 16.7 percent and 17.9 percent (relative risk, 0.92; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.86 to 0.995; P=0.04), and the rate of severe bleeding was 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent (relative risk, 1.25; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 1.61 percent; P=0.09). The rate of the primary end point among patients with multiple risk factors was 6.6 percent with clopidogrel and 5.5 percent with placebo (relative risk, 1.2; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.59; P=0.20) and the rate of death from cardiovascular causes also was higher with clopidogrel (3.9 percent vs. 2.2 percent, P=0.01). In the subgroup with clinically evident atherothrombosis, the rate was 6.9 percent with clopidogrel and 7.9 percent with placebo (relative risk, 0.88; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.77 to 0.998; P=0.046).
CONCLUSIONS: In this trial, there was a suggestion of benefit with clopidogrel treatment in patients with symptomatic atherothrombosis and a suggestion of harm in patients with multiple risk factors.
Overall, clopidogrel plus aspirin was not significantly more effective than aspirin alone in reducing the rate of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes. (!!!!)
See also:
Clopidogrel to treat patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes after hospital discharge.
Division of Cardiology, Duke University School of Medicine, and Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC, USA. trico001@duke.edu
BACKGROUND: Clopidogrel added to aspirin improved outcomes after hospitalization in patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACS) in the Clopidogrel in Unstable angina to prevent Recurrent Events (CURE) trial, regardless of in-hospital treatment approach. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Guidelines for treating NSTE ACS thus recommend prescribing clopidogrel plus aspirin at discharge for all patients, not just for those undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: We studied 61 052 patients with high-risk NSTE ACS (defined as the presence of positive cardiac markers and/or ischemic ST-segment changes) from January 2002 through December 2003 at 461 US hospitals participating in the CRUSADE (Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes With Early Implementation of the ACC/AHA Guidelines) Quality Improvement Initiative. We evaluated temporal trends of clopidogrel use at discharge since the ACC/AHA 2002 Guidelines update and examined variables associated with clopidogrel use in patients who did not undergo PCI.
RESULTS: A total of 34 319 patients (56.2%) received clopidogrel when they were discharged from the hospital. Among patients who did not undergo PCI, variables associated with receiving clopidogrel at discharge included prior PCI, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), stroke, or myocardial infarction; hypercholesterolemia; elevated cardiac markers; and cardiology inpatient care. By late 2003, 96.3% of patients who underwent PCI received clopidogrel at discharge, compared with 42.8% of patients who did not undergo cardiac catheterization and 23.5% of the patients who underwent CABG, although clopidogrel prescription at discharge increased in each of these treatment groups from 2002 to 2003.
CONCLUSION: Since release of the ACC/AHA Guidelines recommendations for treatment of NSTE ACS, prescription of clopidogrel at hospital discharge in patients with NSTE ACS who are treated with medical therapy alone and in those who undergo CABG has increased, but most of these patients still do not receive clopidogrel at discharge.