European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Clopidogrel and Aspirin are widely used antiplatelet agents in the prevention and treatment of isch- emic heart disease (IHD). Many patients have been noticed with recurrence of major ischemic events, due to resistance of these drugs. Different platelet function tests can be used to evaluate the de- gree of achieved platelet inhibition in patients treated with clopidogrel. The objective of this study was to determine frequency of clopidogrel resistance in patients of ischemic heart disease. Seventy one patients of IHD were selected from out-patient department of Punjab Institute of Cardiology Lahore. Platelet aggregation studies were performed on Diamed Impact R. Clopidogrel response as- say was performed with DiaAdin(ADP 110µmol/L). Chi-square test was applied to measure statistical significance. Resistance to Clopidogrel was observed in 17% (12 out of 71). Clopidogrel resistance was significantly associated with female gender (p=0.046). In our study no statistically significant as- sociation was observed between clopidogrel resistance and risk factors like diabetes mellitus, family history ischemic heart disease, hypertension and smoking. We concluded that resistance to Clopido- grel therapy is seen in significant number of patients and female patients are at high risk of develop- ing the resistance to clopidogrel therapy. These patients can be identified by performing platelet aggregation studies on Impact R.