Pharmacy Medical News about clopidogrel discontinuation; acute myocardial infarction; stent implantation

Become a Member Today!
Register

Most Viewed Abstracts

1. Report Shows Shift in Starting Salaries for Physicians

2. 2008 Exclusive Survey—Earnings: Good news for primary care income

3. Medicare pay-for-reporting effort draws fire from frustrated doctors

4. Debunking Myths in the US Healthcare System

5. Statins and cancer risk

Your Article Summary

See Latest Articles

(Click the title below to leave the MDLinx Network and go to the Journal's Website)

Clinical impact of early clopidogrel discontinuation following acute myocardial infarction hospitalization or stent implantation: analysis in a single integrated health network
Current Medical Research and Opinion, 08/11/09

Wiederkehr D et al. – In patients enrolled in an integrated health network, clopidogrel discontinuation prior to 1 year following AMI hospitalization or stent placement is associated with adverse outcomes including greater risk of death, AMI hospitalization or coronary intervention. These results should be interpreted within the context and limitations of observational research, which cannot attribute causality.

Methods

Observational cohort study.
1152 patients enrolled in the Health Alliance Plan who were hospitalized for AMI, or who underwent coronary stent placement.
Clopidogrel use was assessed using pharmacy claims data.
The association between discontinuation of clopidogrel prior to 1 year following the initial ACS event and the primary outcome of AMI hospitalization/procedure was assessed using Cox proportional hazards models.
An analysis was conducted to determine the association of discontinuation prior to 1 year with a secondary composite outcome of AMI hospitalization/coronary stent procedure or all–cause mortality.

Results

Discontinuation of clopidogrel in the total cohort of patients was associated with a significantly higher risk of the primary outcome of AMI hospitalization/coronary intervention (HR 2.712, 95% CI 1.634–4.502).
Consistent with this finding, discontinuation of clopidogrel was also associated with a significantly higher risk of the secondary composite endpoint (HR 1.844, 95% CI 1.281–2.653).

<< Previous
How to Deal with Cost Differences at Baseline

Next >>
Impact of treatment efficacy and dosing frequency on...