Investigation of the Athero-Protective Effects of Clopidogrel
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2010-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
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.