Possibly. These studies were a huge surprise to all of us. We give aspirin during at the onset of an MI. The whole system from ambulance to the ED are trained.
It’s going to shake up a lot of people.
“Possibly. These studies were a huge surprise to all of us. We give aspirin during at the onset of an MI. The whole system from ambulance to the ED are trained.
It’s going to shake up a lot of people.”
My understanding of the latest research results is that a daily aspirin is no longer indicated for people who have not had a heart attack or who are not at high risk for one. However, for heart attack survivors and those at high risk, a daily 81 mg aspirin is still recommended. And for someone experiencing a MI, I would think that multiple aspirin, along with the usual accompanying treatments, will still be used.
The passage from the Globe and Mail nicely summarizes the relevant findings:
“People who have had a heart attack (a clot that stops blood flow to the heart) or an ischemic stroke (a clot that stops blood flow to the brain) – as well as those who have had a stent installed – are at significantly greater risk of having another.
Those who don’t take a daily Aspirin have two to three times the risk of another cardiac event. So it’s a well-established treatment.
This is known as secondary prevention, and the recommendations haven’t changed. But most people who take low doses (or ‘baby’ Aspirin) daily have never had a heart attack or stroke.
They do so based on the intuitive notion that, if blood clots can cause heart attacks and strokes, and Aspirin lessens clotting, then the drug will provide protection.
This theory was first floated in the 1960s, and by the early 1980s, large studies showed that that those who took a daily dose of ASA did indeed have fewer fatal heart problems.
That research has become less valid because, over the years, smoking rates have declined and we’ve become better at treating high blood pressure, so the number of fatal heart attacks and strokes have fallen sharply. In other words, Aspirin works as it always has, but its relative importance for prevention is not as high.”