Health
Stroke survivors who stop aspirin are at risk for another stroke, study says
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 21, 2005
Stroke survivors who stopped taking their prescribed daily aspirin tripled their risk of having another stroke within the month, according to research presented Feb. 2 at the American Stroke Assn.'s International Stroke Conference 2005.
The results confirm previous observations in stroke survivors who quit taking aspirin, researchers said.
"This is the first controlled retrospective study to investigate the potential risk of suffering ischemic stroke shortly after discontinuing aspirin," said Patrik Michel, MD, co-author of the study and director of the acute stroke unit at Lausanne University in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The researchers selected 309 patients who had a stroke or transient ischemic attack 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 were using long-term aspirin therapy.
The average age of the entire study population was 71 years, and 62% were men. In each group, about 69% had hypertension, 20% had diabetes and 14% were smokers.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/02/21/hlbf0221.htm.
