Differential Impact of Cytochrome 2C19 Allelic Variants on Three Different Platelet Function Tests in Clopidogrel-Treated Patients

On-treatment platelet reactivity in clopidogrel-treated patients can be measured with several platelet function tests (PFTs). However, the agreement between different PFTs is only slight to moderate. Polymorphisms of the gene have an impact on the metabolization of clopidogrel and, thereby, have an impact on on-treatment platelet reactivity. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the differential effects of the genotype on three different PFTs. From a prospective cohort study, we included patients treated with clopidogrel following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). One month after PCI, we simultaneously performed three different PFTs; light transmission aggregometry (LTA), VerifyNow P2Y12, and Multiplate. In whole EDTA blood, genotyping of the polymorphisms was performed. We included 308 patients treated with clopidogrel in combination with aspirin (69.5%) and/or anticoagulants (33.8%) and, based on genotyping, classified them as either extensive (36.4%), rapid (34.7%), intermediate (26.0%), or poor metabolizers (2.9%). On-treatment platelet reactivity as measured by LTA and VerifyNow is significantly affected by metabolizer status ( < 0.01); as metabolizer status changes from rapid, via extensive and intermediate, to poor, the mean platelet reactivity increases accordingly ( < 0.01). On the contrary, for Multiplate, no such ordering of metabolizer groups was found ( = 0.10). For VerifyNow and LTA, the on-treatment platelet reactivity in clopidogrel-treated patients correlates well with the underlying polymorphism. For Multiplate, no major effect of genetic background could be shown, and effects of other (patient-related) variables prevail. Thus, besides differences in test principles and the influence of patient-related factors, the disagreement between PFTs is partly explained by differential effects of the genotype.