Heart attack patients taking a heartburn drug with the common blood thinner, plavix, are more likely to have a second cardiac event.

Plavix (clopidogrel), is a standard antiplatelet drug used in individuals recently treated for heart problems. The drug is commonly prescribed in combination with an acid-reducing proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drug such as Prilosec, Nexium, Aciphex, Prevacid and Protonix aiming to neutralize its adverse effects on the stomach.

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, individuals taking both drugs are 50 percent more likely to require a procedure to reopen a coronary artery.

This drug combination is reported to be responsible for thousands of repeated heart attacks.

Scientists therefore urge physicians to avoid prescribing PPIs routinely or prophylactically in patients who are on aspirin and plavix. In patients with a previous history of gastric bleeding, however, the combo is lifesaving.

They also reported the absence of such correlation in patients taking plavix along with non-PPI drugs such as Zantac, Pepcid, Axid and Tagamet; they however, stressed the need for further studies to confirm the efficiency of non-PPIs in heart attack patients.

PKH/HGH