Clopidogrel Resistance and Aspirin Resistance - a Cause of Coronary Artery Stent Thrombosis?.

Background: Occlusions of coronary artery stents are a seldom but often fatal complication after coronary artery intervention. With aggressive platelet inhibition therapy (combination of Aspirin (ASS) and clopidogrel) a reduction of stent thrombosis to less than 2% was achieved. The inhibition of platelet function has great interindividual variability and resistance against ASS and/or clopidogrel were previously described. Therefore we studied the relation between coronary artery stent thrombosis and insufficient inhibition of platelet function in patients after coronary artery intervention.

Methods: Between 2000 and 2003 we examined 20 patients (pts) with coronary artery stent thrombosis within 4 weeks after coronary artery intervention. All patients received a clopidogrel loading dose of 300mg followed by 75mg/die and ASS 100mg/die. Platelet inhibition was studied by light transmittance aggregometry in platelet rich plasma (Aggregometer PAP 4, moelab inc.). Aggregation was recorded as the maximum percentage change in light transmittance from baseline using platelet poor plasma as a reference. We defined ASS resistance as platelet aggregation > 30% after induction with 0,5mg/ml arachidonic acid and clopidogrel resistance as platelet aggregation > 30% after induction with 20 μmol ADP. We compared these pts with 20 pts without stent thrombosis within 4 weeks after coronary artery intervention.

Results: In the group with coronary artery stent thrombosis we found 13/20 patients with insufficient platelet inhibition. 2/20 pts in this group were resistent against both ASS and clopidogrel. In 2/20 pts we observed ASS resistance and in 9/20 pts clopidgrel resistance. In the group of patients without stent thrombosis we found only 1/20 pt with ASS resistance and 1/20 pt with clopidogrel resistance.

Conclusions: Insufficient platelet inhibition could be one cause of early stent thrombosis after coronory artery intervention. Platelet function testing is able to detect insufficient platelet inhibition and early testing could be an instrument to prevent coronary artery stent thrombosis.