Clopidogrel response: Head-to-head comparison of different platelet assays to identify clopidogrel non responder patients after coronary stenting

Objectives. - We investigated the agreement between different platelet tests to identify clopidogrel non response. Background. - Biological definition of clopidogrel non response remains controversial. Different platelet tests have been linked with recurrent ischemic events and proposed for daily practice. Methods. - We prospectively investigated the agreement of platelet tests to isolate clopidogrel non response in patients receiving high 150 mg clopidogrel maintenance dose after coronary stenting. Clopidogrel. response was assessed with ADP-induced aggregation (ADP-Ag) (non response if > 70%), Platelet reactivity index VASP (PRI VASP) (non response if > 50%) and Verify Now Point-of-care assay (VN) (non response if PRU > 240 AU). Results. - Seventy consecutive patients were included. The rates of non-responders were respectively: 13% (n = 9) with the ADP-Ag, 39% (n = 27) with the PRI VASP and 33% (n = 23) with the VN. We observed significant correlation between different platelet tests assessing clopidogrel response: r = 0.55 (p < 0.0001) for ADP-Ag and PRI VASP, r = 0.64 (p < 0.0001) for ADP-Ag and VN and r = 0.59 (p < 0.0001) for PRI VASP and VN. However, using the most common thresholds, the agreement between the difference tests was poor: 0.35 for ADP-Ag and PRI VASP, 0.36 for ADP-Ag and VN and 0.46 for PRI VASP and VN. Conclusion. - This study showed that assessment of platelet function inhibition by clopidogrel is highly test-specific. Indeed, our results demonstrated a poor agreement between different platelet assays and suggested that identification of clopidogrel non responders is test-dependent. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.