- Clopidogrel was marginally more effective than aspirin at reducing the risk of ischaemic stroke, MI or vascular death in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease. That is, the point estimate favoured treatment with clopidogrel but the lower boundary of the 95% confidence intervals suggests that the size of this benefit may be very small.
- Treatment with clopidogrel did not statistically significantly reduce the risk of vascular death or death from any cause compared with aspirin.
- There was no statistically significant difference in the number of bleeding complications experienced in the clopidogrel and aspirin groups.
- Compared with aspirin alone, treatment with MR-dipyridamole alone did not significantly reduce the risk of any of the primary outcomes reported in ESPS-2.
- MR-dipyridamole in combination with aspirin was superior to aspirin alone at reducing the risk of stroke and marginally more effective at reducing the risk of stroke and/or death. Compared with treatment with MR-dipyridamole alone, MR-dipyridamole in combination with aspirin significantly reduced the risk of stroke.
- Treatment with MR-dipyridamole in combination with aspirin did not statistically significantly reduce the risk of death compared with aspirin.
- Compared with treatment with MR-dipyridamole alone, bleeding complications were statistically significantly higher in patients treated with aspirin and MR-dipyridamole in combination with aspirin.
- Due to the assumptions that have to be made, no conclusions could be drawn about the relative effectiveness of MR-dipyridamole, alone or in combination with aspirin, and clopidogrel from the adjusted indirect comparison.