Learn About Cardiovascular Treatment Options
There are several types of heart medications. Learning how these medications work will help you and your doctor discuss which ones may be right for you.
How it works: Proven to help reduce the risk of platelets from sticking together and forming clots, which can help protect against a future heart attack or stroke.
What it targets: Formation of clots in the arteries are the direct cause of more than 90% of heart attacks and 87% of strokes.
Once you have had a heart attack or stroke, your risk of a heart attack or stroke never goes away, even if you feel better.
Plavix® (clopidogrel bisulfate) is for patients who have had a recent heart attack, had a recent stroke, or have been diagnosed with Peripheral Artery Disease. PLAVIX in combination with aspirin is for patients hospitalized with heart-related chest pain or heart attack. Doctors may refer to these conditions as ACS (Acute Coronary Syndrome). Always talk to your doctor before taking aspirin or other medicines with PLAVIX, especially if you've had a stroke.
A heart medication prescribed for millions.
Plavix® (clopidogrel bisulfate) was FDA approved in 1997. Doctors have written Plavix® (clopidogrel bisulfate) prescriptions to over 115 million people.* Plavix® (clopidogrel bisulfate) is one of the most researched prescription antiplatelet medicines.*
PLAVIX helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots. Clots are the direct cause of most heart attacks and strokes. Taking PLAVIX can help reduce your risk of a future heart attack or stroke. Talk to your doctor before taking aspirin or other medicines with PLAVIX, especially if you've had a stroke.
*IMS Health, NPA Plus™, TRxs. Data through June 2010.
Click here for US Full Prescribing Information Including BOXED WARNING and Medication Guide for PLAVIX
Aspirin
How it works: Aspirin works by stopping the production of certain natural substances that cause fever, pain and swelling. Aspirin is also used as a heart medication to help reduce the tendency for the blood to form clots.
What it targets: Aspirin is used to help prevent heart attacks or strokes in people who have had a heart attack or stroke in the past.
If you've been hospitalized with heart-related chest pain, or had a heart attack, PLAVIX, taken with aspirin, helps provide more protection against a future heart attack or stroke than aspirin alone.
Taking PLAVIX alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery.
Diuretics
How they work: Drugs that work by increasing the rate at which urine forms, which helps with the removal of water and salts.
What they target: Help to relieve the heart's workload and also decrease the buildup of fluid in the lungs and other parts of the body, such as the ankles and legs. Diuretics are heart medications used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.
Beta-blockers
How they work: A class of heart medications that slow the heartbeat, lessen the force with which the heart muscle contracts and reduce the narrowing of blood vessels in the heart, brain, and throughout the body.
What they target: Beta-blockers are heart medications that relieve stress on the heart by acting on substances in the blood. They may also be useful in treating chest pain and treating high blood pressure and other heart conditions by reducing the heart rate and the heart's output of blood.
Calcium Channel Blockers
How they work: A class of heart medications that block the movement of calcium into the heart and blood vessel muscle cells. This causes the muscles to relax, lowering blood pressure, slowing the heart rate, and decreasing the heart's oxygen demands.
What they target: These heart medications lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension. They decrease the heart's pumping strength and relax blood vessels. They are also used to treat other heart conditions, such as chest pain.
ACE Inhibitors/ARB Blockers
How they work: ACE inhibitors act as heart medications to stop the body's production of angiotensin. ARB blockers stop the effects of angiotensin.
What they target: Both of these classes of heart medications are used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure by targeting a chemical called angiotensin, which causes blood vessels to narrow. Both help keep the coronary arteries open, which lowers blood pressure, increases blood flow to the heart, and reduces the heart's workload.
Statins
How they work: Statins are a class of heart medications that lower the amount of cholesterol in the blood.
What they target: Most cholesterol is carried through the blood in a protein "package" called low-density lipoprotein (LDL). LDL is considered the "bad" cholesterol because it is most likely to be deposited in the artery walls, increasing the buildup of plaque and the potential for clots.
Leg Pain Symptom Relievers
How they work: These medications are used for the treatment of patients with cramp-like symptoms in their legs. They help improve the flow of blood in the legs by lessening its thickness or by dilating the arteries in the legs.
What they target: Help increase blood flow to the affected areas and improve the level of oxygen getting to the tissues. These medications can help relieve the symptoms of P.A.D.† but, unlike PLAVIX, they are not indicated to help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke associated with P.A.D. PLAVIX is not indicated for the treatment of symptoms of P.A.D.
†Plavix is not indicated for the treatment of symptoms of P.A.D.