Aspirin and esomeprazole are superior to clopidogrel in preventing recurrent ulcer bleeding.
Although low-dose aspirin is commonly used as the antiplatelet agent to prevent ischaemic events such as myocardial infarction and stroke, clopidogrel is probably superior at preventing ischaemic events. For patients who cannot tolerate aspirin, adding a proton pump inhibitor or substituting clopidogrel are options. Patients with endoscopy-confirmed ulcer healing were assigned to clopidogrel 75 mg/day or aspirin 80 mg/day and esomeprazole 20 mg b.i.d. for 12 months. There were 14 confirmed cases of recurrent ulcer bleeding, with 13 being from the 161 patients taking clopidogrel and 1 from the 159 patients taking aspirin plus esomeprazole. This trial has clearly shown that the combination of aspirin and esomeprazole is superior to clopidogrel in preventing recurrent ulcer bleeding. A more interesting study may have been to compare the effects of aspirin and clopidogrel in the presence of esomeprazole in patients with a history of ulcers.
Doggrell
Sheila A
SA
The University of Queensland, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland 4072, Australia. s_doggrell@yahoo.com