Safety and efficacy of glycoprotein inhibitors

Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology is, me! I am the first author on a meta-analysis in JACC along with several of my colleagues here at UF. A meta-analysis is a study where we take the results of several other studies and combine the results to create a kind of "super-study" with may more patients than a single study would have. The upside is, more patients, more powerful study. The downside is, each study is done slightly (or significantly) different. We use statistics to minimize the differences and measure how different they are, and if done well, can provide important information for doctors.

In this case, we measured the effect of a class of drugs called glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. These are anti-platelet drugs which prevent clotting when you are putting in a stent. Since they prevent clotting, they can also cause bleeding and so we were trying to measure the benefit and the risk with these drugs and help decide if overall they are a good idea to continue using. Are results show that they reduce heart attacks and increase minor bleeding and thus, on balance, are helpful. These are drugs given IV, so they are not anything the public would normally ever know about, but the research is interesting and having it published in JACC is great.

Also, see the news release from UF College of Medicine, and the editorial written in JACC. Press release also picked up by the Chipley Bugle and physorg.com.