Wednesday, November 23, 2005

SYNERGY: Study Compares Use of Anti-Clotting Drugs for Heart Patients
By Julie McKeel

High-risk patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are at risk for continued severe heart-related chest pain despite aggressive treatment, according to the results of the Superior Yield of the New Strategy of Enoxaparin, Revascularization, and Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibitors (SYNERGY) study published in the November 23/30 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Nearly 10,000 ACS patients were randomly assigned to receive either early revascularization treatment along with the drug enoxaparin (a low-molecular-weight form of the anticoagulant heparin), or unfractionated heparin.

[Revascularization involves a procedure in which small holes are laser-drilled in the heart tissue to improve blood flow.]

The patients were checked at 30 days, six months and again at one year, and their conditions were compared.

Kenneth Mahaffey, MD

The DCRI's Dr. Kenneth Mahaffey, lead author of the study, says, "Despite aggressive revascularization strategies and high use of evidence-based therapies, patients with high-risk ACS features remain at risk for continued adverse cardiac morbidity and mortality."

Both drugs have been used in the hospital to reduce the risk of blood clots during the first 24 hours after a heart attack. Enoxaparin, the generic name of blood-thinning drug Lovenox, works as well as a standard artery-clearing drug in patients with severe heart-related chest pain, but neither reduced the risk of death after a year of treatment, according to the study's authors.

The study was funded by Aventis Pharmaceuticals, a member of the Sanofi-Aventis Group, which markets enoxaparin (Lovenox).

The SYNERGY trial investigators at the DCRI include Dr. Mahaffey, Dr. Rob Califf, Dr. Craig Reist (project lead), Jyotsna Garg (statistician), and Lisa Berdan, (program director for cardiovascular clinical trials).