Clinical Management of Antiplatelet Drug Resistance in Patients With Drug Eluting Coronary Stents

It is recommended that patients who have drug-eluting stents placed in their coronary
arteries take aspirin and Plavix (Clopidogrel) for at least a year. Patients who stop taking
these antiplatelet drugs or who have resistance to the antiplatelet effects of these drugs
are at a higher risk of clots occurring inside the stents which may result in a heart
attack. At the present time, it is unknown if increasing the doses of the antiplatelet
agents is effective in overcoming this resistance. The purpose of this project is to
identify patients with antiplatelet drug resistance and to test whether an increase in the
Plavix (Clopidogrel) dose overcomes antiplatelet drug resistance.