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Don't let stroke survivors' aspirin remedy slip

Physician Practice Advisor, February 8, 2005

Stroke survivors who stop taking their prescribed daily aspirin triple their risk of having another stroke within the month, according to research presented Feb. 2 at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2005.

Researchers at Lausanne University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, selected 309 patients who had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) and were on long-term aspirin therapy for secondary prevention of heart attack and stroke. They matched these patients with 309 control patients who had a stroke or TIA more than six months before and also took long-term aspirin therapy.

The average age of participants was 71 years, and 62% were men. In both the study and control group, about 69% had hypertension, 20% had diabetes, and 14% were smokers. In the study group, 36% had coronary heart disease compared to 18% in the control group.

Researchers found that 13 patients in the stroke group discontinued aspirin within four weeks of their strokes, while only four patients did in the control group. Therefore, patients with stroke or TIA were 3.25 times more likely to have interrupted their aspirin than patients with similar risk factors but no new stroke or TIA. Seventy-seven percent of the ischemic strokes related to aspirin discontinuation occurred in the first eight days after stopping aspirin use; the other 23% occurred from day nine to 30.

Go to www.americanheart.org for more information.

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