Plavix, Other Blood Thinners Linked to Severe Bleeding Risk in Heart Attack Patients
Heart attack patients who take blood-thinning drugs such as Plavix or Coumadin (warfarin) are more likely to be hospitalized for bleeding than those not on the drugs, according to a new study.
A cocktail of blood thinners are often used to reduce the risks of additional heart attacks, but Danish researchers said their study calls into question the safety of that treatment.
The findings from the study of more than 40,000 Danish patients appear in the online edition of the medical journal The Lancet, according to a HealthDay news report.
The researchers studied the effects of various treatments on patients who had their first heart attack between 2000 and 2005. On average, within 16 months of suffering their heart attack, 4.6 percent of the patients in the study returned to the hospital because of bleeding or died with bleeding identified as the cause of death, the study found.
Plavix Users Highest Bleeding Risks
Patients who took just aspirin had the lowest rate of bleeding, with the highest risks seen in patients who took Plavix (clopidogrel) along with a Coumadin (a vitamin K antagonist) or all three drugs combined, according to the HealthDay news report.
“In patients with first-time heart attack, all combinations of aspirin, clopidogrel and vitamin K antagonists are associated with increased risk of nonfatal and fatal bleeding, apart from monotherapy with a vitamin K antagonist, compared with aspirin alone,” the study authors wrote, said HealthDay news.
“Increased risk of bleeding was proportional to the number of drugs used,” the study’s authors continued. “Nonfatal bleeding is an independent predictor associated with increased risk of recurrent heart attack or death. We propose that treatment with triple therapy or dual therapy with clopidogrel plus vitamin K antagonist should be prescribed only after thorough individual risk assessment and careful consideration of the risk-benefit ratio.”
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