Clopidogrel Is More Effective Than Aspirin at Staving Off Third CVE

In a study of 4496 patients at a high risk for another heart attack or stroke, researchers found that the anticlotting drug clopidogrel produced a 14.9% lower relative risk for hospitalization or death from a cardiovascular event (CVE). A year after their second CVE, 16.1% of clopidogrel users suffered another heart attack, stroke, or CVE, compared with 18.5% of patients taking aspirin. Three years after their first CVE, statistics showed that 20.4% of patients taking clopidogrel and 23.8% of patients taking aspirin had died from a CVE. Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, study coauthor and director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, concluded, "Basically, if a patient has a history of multiple cardiovascular events, [he or she is] better off being treated with clopidogrel rather than aspirin."