Scientists Have Clarified Which Patients Need Aspirin For Prevention

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 23:16

Scientists have clarified which patients need aspirin for prevention

New Zealand scientists have found that the benefits of taking aspirin may outweigh the risks for many patients without diagnosed cardiovascular disease, only personalized benefit-harm analysis is needed.

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For decades, healthy patients have been encouraged to take low-dose aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD), but this year the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have revised the guidelines. After a heart attack, stroke, or open heart surgery, daily aspirin is still recommended and can be life-saving. But since the blood-thinning effect of aspirin can cause severe bleeding, many healthy patients are not worth the risk.

However, a new study by New Zealand scientists from the University of Auckland, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, drew a different conclusion. The benefits of taking aspirin may outweigh the risks for many patients without diagnosed cardiovascular disease (CVD), but personalized benefit-harm analysis is needed.

The researchers analyzed data from 245,028 people (43.6% of them women) aged 30 to 79 years with no history of CVD. Their goal was to identify people who are likely to benefit from aspirin.

“We classified each person in the study as benefitting from aspirin if the number of [CVD] cases averted was greater than the number of bleeding cases,” said author Vanessa Selak.

The net benefit of taking aspirin was calculated for each participant by subtracting the number of CVD cases that were likely to be prevented from the major bleeding that could be caused within 5 years.

According to the results, 12.1% of men and 2.5% of women with no history of heart problems experienced a net benefit. If one CVD case is considered equivalent to two major bleeding, 21% of women and 41% of men would benefit from a net benefit.

The researchers concluded that the benefits of aspirin outweigh the harm from bleeding when the risk of death from bleeding alone is considered equivalent to the risk of hospitalization or death from myocardial infarction.

However, the authors caution that more research is needed in other countries, as well as the use of aspirin in people over the age of 79. Scientists make no arguments to change the current recommendation.

“Our research has shown that there are people who can benefit from aspirin in general, taking into account the harm from bleeding, but personal prediction of benefits and harms is necessary to identify these people,” concluded Vanessa Selak.