Investigation of the Athero-Protective Effects of Clopidogrel

Summary

The investigators would like to investigate whether clopidogrel will help lower the level of harmful markers in patients with coronary artery disease, and at the same time will help increase the cells that are useful in repairing the damaged blood vessels. The investigators will give half of the patients clopidogrel and the other half a sugar pill, placebo, and check the levels of these markers and helpful cells in each group. At the same time the investigators will check how well these patient's blood vessels work using ultrasound imaging of the forearm to see how blood vessels relax and tonometry to see how stiff the patient's blood vessels are. After 6 weeks of drug therapy, the patients will switch to the other drug and these same tests will be performed after an additional 6 weeks of therapy. The drug taken by the patient will not be known to the patient or the researchers. The patients will continue on their prescribed medical therapy during the duration of the 12 week study.

Timeline

Start

2008-01

Primary completion

2010-12

Completion

2010-12

Publications

• Ramadan R, Dhawan SS, Syed H, Pohlel FK, Binongo JN, Ghazzal ZB, Quyyumi AA. Effects of clopidogrel therapy on oxidative stress, inflammation, vascular function, and progenitor cells in stable coronary artery disease. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 2014 Apr;63(4):369-74. doi: 10.1097/FJC.0000000000000057.

Drugs

Indications