Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: A new data from a clinical trial of healthy older adults has found higher rates of brain bleeding among those who took daily low-dose aspirin, and no significant protection against stroke.
The data, published in the medical journal JAMA, is the latest evidence that low-dose aspirin, which slows the clotting action of platelets, may not be appropriate for people who do not have any history of heart conditions or warning signs of stroke.
Older people prone to falls, which can cause brain bleeds, should be particularly cautious about taking aspirin, the findings suggest.
In the study, researchers recruited 19,114 elderly persons of whom 9,525 received aspirin and 9,589 received placebo.
After a follow-up of 4.7 years, on average, they found that there wasn’t any significant reduction in ischemic stroke, also referred to as clot-related stroke, between the two groups.
However, the researchers found a statistically significant 38% increase in intracranial bleeding (bleeding within the brain tissue) resulting from a combination of haemorrhagic stroke (brain damage caused by bleeding in the brain) and other causes of intracranial haemorrhage among individuals randomised to aspirin.
Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent that has been used in low doses (75-100 mg/d) for the prevention of cardiovascular events. Its major adverse effect is an increased bleeding tendency. According to the JAMA study, the medicine continues to be widely used for primary and secondary prevention of stroke despite some recent unfavourable findings.
