Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Pretreatment of adenosine diphosphate receptor antagonists (clopidogrel) can reduce case fatality and incidence of myocardial infarction for patients receiving percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the course of clopidogrel needs to be discussed.
OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes of C-reactive protein (CRP) in atherosclerotic heart disease patients after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty followed by clopidogrel intervention.
METHODS: Totally 48 atherosclerotic heart disease patients received antiplatelet therapy, including aspirin (300 mg) and clopidogrel (300 mg) at 1 day before PCI, followed by a daily dose of clopidogrel (75 mg/day) combined with aspirin (100 mg/d). The patients were followed up at 24 hours, 1 month and 6 months after operation. They were divided into 2 groups. Patients in the first group were received clopidogrel combined with aspirin for 12 months, and those in the second group received clopidogrel combined with aspirin for 3 months after PCI, and then aspirin alone. Blood was taken from all patients before intervention, immediately after intervention and in the follow-up. Serum CRP was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Serum CRP level was increased after operation, reached a peak at 24 hours, and then gradually decreased. CRP level still increased in the patients receiving clopidogrel pretreatment, it showed the anti-inflammatory therapy is necessary after operation. Prolonged course of clopidogrel treatment could obviously decrease CRP levels, which may have roles on lower the risk of cardiovascular accident after operation.