Coated Stents Best for Heart Patients With Diabetes

Plavix is a notoriously tricky drug to deliver, as individual responses vary tremendously.

"We prescribe clopidogrel in a one-size-fits-all approach," explained AHA spokeswoman Dr. Nieca Goldberg. "They were looking at a way to individualize the drug."

"The message is 'yes, we can perform a therapeutic window for platelet therapy to avoid MACE [major adverse cardiovascular events] in patients," said senior study author Dr. Franck Paganelli, a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Hopital Nord, University of Marseille School of Medicine, in France.

"Trying to identify a loading dose using a lab test is a very creative idea," said AHA spokesman Dr. Elliott Antman. "We have to have a lot more information about the integrity of lab tests and how we should use them."

The authors of this study based their dosing on an index of platelet activity in patients undergoing stent placement.

More information

The American Heart Association has more on PCI.

SOURCES: Nov. 10, 2008, news conference with Laura Mauri, M.D., assistant professor, medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston; David Williams, M.D., Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, Providence; Franck Pagnelli, M.D., Ph.D., professor, medicine, division of cardiology, Hopital Nord, University of Marseille School of Medicine, France; Elliott Antman, M.D., Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston; Nieca Goldberg, M.D., American Heart Association spokeswoman and clinical associate professor, medicine, and medical director, Women's Heart Program, New York University