Researchers have said that they might have found a drug that could be better than aspirin at preventing heart attacks and long-term heart disease, according to a paper published on Monday.
In a meta-analysis published in both the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, scientists said that switching from aspirin to clopidogrel—a prescription medication used to prevent blood clots that may cause a heart attack or stroke—could reduce the risk of a heart attack, stroke, or death by an additional 14 percent in patients who suffer from coronary artery disease.
Their findings, they said, “add to the evidence that clopidogrel monotherapy is superior to aspirin monotherapy for [heart attack and stroke] prevention with no increase in the risk of bleeding, and support the preferential use of clopidogrel over aspirin for secondary prevention in patients” who have coronary artery disease….