PLAVIX (clopidogrel bisulfate)
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Heart Attack

What causes most heart attacks?

A heart attack can occur when arteries supplying blood to the heart are partially or severely blocked. In most cases, the blockage is caused by clots. In fact, clots cause more than 90% of all heart attacks. PLAVIX helps keep platelets in the blood from sticking together and forming clots. This helps keep blood flowing more easily, helping to reduce the risk of another heart attack or stroke.

Did You Know?

Did You Know?

Blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart-related medicines may be an important part of your treatment plan, but, unlike PLAVIX, they don't directly reduce the risk of clots—the cause of more than 85% of heart attacks and strokes.

Your future risk

Reducing your risk with PLAVIX may be especially important because having a heart attack, or even heart-related chest pain, increases the ongoing risk of future events, including a heart attack or even stroke.

Research tells us that people who have had a heart attack face an:

  • Increased risk of another heart attack compared with the general population
  • Increased risk of stroke compared with the general population
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The same factors that put you at risk for a future heart attack may put you at risk for stroke. For instance, if you have plaque in the arteries leading to the heart, there is a likelihood of having plaque buildup in other arteries—such as those leading to the brain. This plaque may eventually rupture, causing platelets to stick together and form a clot—which can limit or completely stop the flow of blood to part of the heart, causing a heart attack, or to the brain, causing a stroke.

How do clots form?

All of us develop plaque: a buildup of cholesterol and other materials in the walls of our arteries. Over time, this plaque can restrict the flow of blood throughout the body.


healthy artery
  1. Normal arteries are smooth and flexible, allowing oxygen-rich blood to flow through easily.
plaque buildup
  1. Over time, certain factors cause cholesterol, fat, calcium, and other materials to collect in the arterial walls causing plaque. This plaque narrows the arteries and reduces the flow of blood.
plaque rupture and platelettes sticking together
  1. As blood flows through the narrowed artery, the plaque can rupture. This causes platelets in the blood to stick to the damaged area (similar to a scab on the skin) by clumping together and forming a clot.
clot formation and partial or complete blockage
  1. A clot can reduce or completely block the flow of blood through an artery. If this happens in an artery supplying the heart, the result can be a heart attack or heart-related chest pain.

PLAVIX can help

PLAVIX is proven to help keep platelets in the blood from sticking together and forming clots, helping to keep your blood flowing. This can help protect you from having a future heart attack or stroke.

"Stent* or no stent, PLAVIX may be right for you

Some patients who have had heart-related chest pain (unstable angina) or a certain type of heart attack in which your artery was partially blocked (non–ST-elevation heart attack) have medical procedures to insert a stent into an artery that is narrowed due to plaque buildup. Others are managed with medical treatment, or with cardiac surgery. In each of these cases, it's still important to talk to your doctor about PLAVIX.

* Bare metal stent.

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