Hans-Christoph Diener, MD

The recent Management of Atherothrombosis with Clopidogrel in High-risk Patients Trial showed that adding acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) to clopidogrel in high-risk patients with recent ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack is associated with a favorable but nonstatistically significant trend toward fewer vascular events. However, the risk of life-threatening bleeding is increased by the addition of aspirin to clopidogrel. These results do not support the routine use of aspirin in addition to clopidogrel in the patient population that was studied in MATCH.