Antiplatelet Drug May Help Aspirin Prevent Stroke

A combination of the clot-preventing drug clopidogrel (Plavix) and aspirin was more powerful than aspirin alone in reducing formation of tiny but threatening blood clots in a study of people at very high risk of stroke, European researchers report. It was a small study for a short duration --107 patients treated for seven days -- but it is a first step on the same path that established the use of the two-drug combination in heart disease, said Dr. Hugh S. Markus. He is lead author of the report, which appears in the April 26 online issue of Circulation, and a professor of neurology at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London.