Improvement of myocardial blood flow to ischemic regions by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition.

taking clopidogrel in CAPRIE from the neutropenia seen in .1% of patients treated with ticlopidine for greater than 1 month in whom profound life-threatening neutropenia develops requiring cessation of the drug and often requiring therapeutic interventions. This sort of severe neutropenia did not occur in any of the more than 9,000 patients in CAPRIE treated with clopidogrel and has been reported very rarely in the greater than 4 million people treated with clopidogrel since the drug was approved for use in the United States based on post-market surveillance (Dr. Melvin Blumenthal, MD, Bristol-Myers Squibb, personal communication). In conclusion, the frequency of neutropenia among patients taking clopidogrel appears to be similar to the background occurrence of neutropenia in patients taking aspirin, and the evidence from CAPRIE and all other randomized trials suggests clopidogrel does not cause neutropenia, as we stated in the article.