Cor Vasa 2009, 51(1):41-44 | DOI: 10.33678/cor.2009.011

Failure of therapy or resistance to antiplatelet drugs?

Hana Ševčíková^1,*, Jan Vojáček¹, Radek Pudil¹, Josef Šťásek¹, Josef Bis¹, Róbert Ševčík¹, Jaroslav Malý², Petr Dulíček², Miroslav Pecka², Ilona Fátorová²

¹ Department of Internal Medicine I

² Department of Internal Medicine II - Clinical Hematology, University Hospital Hradec Králové and Charles University in Prague, Medical Faculty in Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Even though the efficacy of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and clopidogrel has been documented in patients with acute and chronic coronary artery disease (CAD), many patients develop thrombotic cardiovascular complications despite dual anti-platelet therapy due to nonresponsiveness or partial responsiveness. The phenomenon of resistance to antiplatelet therapy remains incompletely defined, influenced as it is by a variety of genetic, cellular, and clinical factors. In conclusion, although clinical guidelines still do not support routine screening for antiplatelet drug resistance (because a standard laboratory assay is still lacking), there is mounting evidence for the need to correlate the laboratory and clinical parameters of pla-telet activity assessment in different clinical scenarios.

Keywords: Acetylsalicylic acid; Clopidogrel; "Nonresponsiveness"; Screening; Aggregometry

Published: January 1, 2009  Show citation