TRIFLUSAL IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC PERIPHERAL ARTERIOPATHY - MULTICENTER DOUBLE-BLIND CLINICAL-STUDY VS PLACEBO

Many clinical trials have shown the effectiveness of platelet-antiaggr egant drugs in the treatment of obliterative peripheral arteriopathy, both locally and in the system, by improving the claudication symptoms and by preventing major cardiovascular events. In this study we evalu ated the effectiveness of a 24-week treatment with triflusal, a compar atively new inhibitor of platelet aggregation, in patients affected by chronic peripheral arteriopathy, comparing twice-daily oral doses of 300 mg triflusal with twice-daily placebo doses. The percentages of su ccesses (defined as a 40% increase of total walking distance over the basal control) were 63.6% in the triflusal group (35/55 patients) and 22.5% in the placebo group (14/62 patients). Patients treated with tri flusal showed a more important increase in total walking distance and in pain-free walking distance over the basal values than those treated with placebo, together with an improvement of the symptomatology corr elated with claudication. Moreover, in the triflusal group there was a n increase in the peak-now recorded through strain-gauge plethysmograp hy. in conclusion, triflusal significantly increased both the distance which could be walked and the clinical symptoms, presumably by improv ing microperfusion.