Plavix vs warafin

I was diagnosed with lone atrial fib about 5 or 6 yrs ago. I have been taking metropolol, verapamil and warafin. I recently changed doctors and today the new doctor suggested I stop the warafin and start taking Plavix. I am 52 y/o female. No hyper-tension, no diabetese, no tia/stroke or any of the factors listed for taking warafin instead of aspirin.
The doctor said I was a good candidate for aspirin to prevent clotting but I am allergic to aspirin.  Has anyone heard of or personally changed from warafin to plavix? Thank you for any input you can provide.


This discussion is related to Atrial Fib.

[SooZeeATL]

I can't answer your question but I had a PVI ablation for afib in February and have been on Warfarin for the past 2 months. When I went to get my initial IRN check, the nurse explained to me that there were different classes of drugs (I think 8) that worked on coagulation. Heparin was one, aspirin was another, then Coumadin/Warfarin, Plavix, etc. She explained that I had to be on the Warfarin and aspirin while healing because these were the drugs best suited to my condition.

I also did a quick Google search and the first hit was a message on this message board that got the following answer from a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic. You may want to do the same search but here is the response from that post...

From ClevelandClinic; "There is currently no data whatsoever, showing benefit of plavix in stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. The two current standards of care are aspirin and coumadin...with the later being undoubtably more effective in patients that can tolerae it. Alot of people have peripheral neuropathy and do perfectly well without falls. I usually prefer coumadin unless there is a definite risk.  Any regimen that would attempt to use plavix, should at least include aspirin sine it is proven."

Also, are you seeing an EP or just a regular cardiologist?

[DodyRosy]

I just saw my EP at Cleveland Clinic on Monday and we discussed using aspirin or coumadin to prevent stroke from afib. I am currently taking 325mg aspirin but he is considering changing it. He said they assign you a risk number to determine which medicine you should be on. If your risk is 0 it's aspirin, 1 can be either depending on patient and physician preference, and 2 or over is coumadin. I have a number over two because of history of TIA but I am difficult to regulate on coumadin. So he suggested using Plavix combined with 81mg aspirin. He said it provides more protection than aspirin but not as much as coumadin. He will talk to my neurologist and see what he recommends. I am a 40 year old female who had valve repair and MAZE procedure at Cleveland 9 months ago. After my surgery because of a pericardial effusion I was taken off coumadin and left on aspirin even with arrhythmias. My afib is not constant right now. Hope this helps.