Adding the blood thinner Plavix to standard heart attack treatments could cut deaths from severe heart attacks by more than a third.
“There will be about a million heart attacks in the U.S. this year and about a third of them will be this type of severe heart attack; that’s about more than 300,000 heart attacks,” says researcher Marc S. Sabatine, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School.
Doctors refer to these severe heart attacks with the term “ST-elevation” due to specific changes that are seen on a heart monitor. These heart attacks occur when blood flow to the heart is severely reduced.
Severe heart attack treatment usually includes clot busting drugs and aspirin. But Harvard researchers say adding Plavix, a potent blood thinner, cuts deaths and second heart attacks by 36 percent compared with standard heart attack treatment.
In the study, patients who took Plavix as part of their heart attack treatment were also 20 percent less likely to need heart bypass surgery. The study was funded by Plavix makers Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
“There will be about a million heart attacks in the U.S. this year and about a third of them will be this type of severe heart attack; that’s about more than 300,000 heart attacks,” says researcher Marc S. Sabatine, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School.
Doctors refer to these severe heart attacks with the term “ST-elevation” due to specific changes that are seen on a heart monitor. These heart attacks occur when blood flow to the heart is severely reduced.
Severe heart attack treatment usually includes clot busting drugs and aspirin. But Harvard researchers say adding Plavix, a potent blood thinner, cuts deaths and second heart attacks by 36 percent compared with standard heart attack treatment.
In the study, patients who took Plavix as part of their heart attack treatment were also 20 percent less likely to need heart bypass surgery. The study was funded by Plavix makers Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
