Aspirin-Plavix combination ineffective at preventing heart disease, stroke

A major study has found no benefit, and perhaps harm, from mixing the anti-clotting drug Plavix to aspirin.

Plavix alone has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of a second heart attack, so it was assumed adding asprin to the regimen would further decrease the chance of another heart attack.

A trial involving more than 15,000 high-risk patients showed there was no benefit from the combination, researchers report.

"The absence of a clear benefit, in terms of clinical outcome, coupled with the increased rate of bleeding... argues against the use of dual therapy in this patient population," wrote Dr. Marc Pfeffer of Harvard Medical School and Dr. John Jarcho of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Drugs | Medicine | Heart Disease
Aspirin Therapy | Plavix | Medical Research