New drug can cut heart attack deaths

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Adding clopidogrel, an anti-platelet drug, to aspirin could save lives if used as emergency treatment for heart attack.
Clopidogrel is a relatively new drug which stops the blood from clotting. It is already known that it is effective when added to aspirin in reducing the risk of early death in a heart attack without ST-segment elevation. However, its benefits in heart attacks without ST-segment elevation are unknown. (ST-segmentation is a feature seen on the electrocardiogram). Researchers at the University of Oxford now reveal results of a study of clopidogrel plus aspirin in the latter type of heart attack.

A group of over 45,800 patients in hospital in China for heart attack took either clopidogrel or placebo with their daily aspirin. Clopidogrel was found to reduce repeat heart attacks, deaths and stroke by nine per cent compared with placebo. This means that if clopidogrel was given to a million patients, around 5000 deaths would be prevented. Therefore, routine treatment with clopidogrel should perhaps be considered for heart attack patients.

Source
The Lancet 5th November 2005