Study: New drug a boon after heart attacks

People recovering from a heart attack or severe chest pain are much less likely to suffer another heart-related problem or to die from one if they take a new blood-thinning drug along with standard anti-clotting medicines, a study finds.

But this benefit had a cost: a greater risk of serious bleeding, usually in the digestive tract.

Still, some doctors said the drug, Xarelto, could become a new standard of care for patients hospitalized for these conditions. A low dose of the drug substantially cut the risk of dying of any cause during the study.

"Mortality trumps everything," so a drug that improves survival is a win, said Dr. Paul Armstrong of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

The study, discussed yesterday at an American Heart Association conference in Florida, was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was sponsored by the drug's makers, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer Healthcare.

Xarelto is approved now at higher doses for preventing strokes in people with a common heart-rhythm problem and for preventing blood clots after joint surgeries. It works in a different way from how aspirin and older blood thinners do. -- AP