Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/633150.html
Certain Reflux Drugs Tied to Higher Post-Angioplasty Death Rate
Study suggests interaction between Prilosec, Protonix and blood-thinners such as Plavix
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- People taking the acid reflux drugs Prilosec or Protonix in combination with blood thinners such as Plavix have a higher risk for death after angioplasty than people who don't take the two popular antacids, a new study has found.
The people in the study, which is to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., were undergoing what doctors call "percutaneous coronary intervention," or PCI, a common procedure used to widen a narrowed artery. PCI typically involves balloon angioplasty followed by the insertion of a drug-emitting stent, a tiny mesh tube, to keep the vessel open.
Study author Dr. Joseph Sweeny, an assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, said that the clinical implications for users of these reflux drugs -- called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)-- remain unclear.
"It's a moving target," Sweeny said, adding that, "although certain confounders are going to be at play that do cause limitations of the study, in my opinion the data speaks for itself. We found an overall increased mortality in this patient population that takes a PPI with clopidogrel [Plavix]. The problem was I was not able to look at specific cause of mortality."
One expert agreed that the study, while interesting, does not prove cause-and-effect.