What are my chances of having a clot in my drug-eluting stent and of having a heart attack if I do or do not take clopidogrel (Plavix®) and aspirin?
Your chances of having a clot in your drug-eluting stent and a heart attack are much greater if you do not take the medicine. Doctors at Duke University evaluated the records of their patients who had received drug-eluting stents and did not have trouble for the next 6 months. Over the following year, the patients who continued taking their anticlotting medicine had a 1 in 40 (0.025%) chance of clotting. However, for patients that stopped their anticlotting medicine 6 months after their stents were inserted, the chance of clotting doubled to 1 out of 20 (0.05%). A different group of doctors, in Denver, evaluated patients for one year after they received a drug-eluting stent. They found that 99 of 100 (99%) patients who continued their medication were alive one year after receiving a drug-eluting stent. The chance of death increased dramatically for patients who stopped their medicines after only one month following drug-eluting stent implantation. Another study found that 7 of 121 (6%)
