This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Aspirin therapy discontinuation confers elevated risk for CV events
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The discontinuation of low-dose aspirin therapy in the absence of major surgery or bleeding may increase the risk for CV events, according to data published in Circulation.
Although low-dose aspirin therapy has been used as secondary prevention in CVD and recommended in guidelines, its utility in primary prevention is currently under investigation, according to the researchers.
“Low-dose aspirin is a simple and inexpensive treatment,” Johan Sundström, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Uppsala University in Sweden, said in a press release. “As long as there’s no bleeding or any major surgery scheduled, our research shows the significant public health benefits that can be gained when patients stay on aspirin therapy.”
Sundström and colleague performed a cohort study consisting of 601,527 participants from the Swedish prescription registry who were low-dose aspirin users for primary and secondary prevention to assess the health effects of aspirin therapy cessation.
According to the study, patients included in the registry were older than 40 years, were free from previous cancer and had an 80% or greater adherence rate during their first year of therapy.
Because low-dose aspirin cannot be purchased over-the-counter without a prescription in Sweden, researchers used the mandatory nationwide Swedish prescribed drug register and linked it to the Swedish inpatient and cause-of-death registers to identify CV events, defined as CV death or hospitalization for MI or stroke.
The researchers observed 62,690 CV events during a 3-year follow-up.
There was a 37% higher rate of CV events among those who discontinued aspirin compared with patients who continued treatment (multivariable-adjusted HR = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.34-1.41).
According to the researchers, this finding translates an additional CV event observed per year in 1 of 74 patients who discontinue aspirin.
Risk for CV events increased shortly after the discontinuation of aspirin therapy and did not diminish with time, Sundström and colleagues wrote.
According to Sundström and colleagues, the results of this study can help policymakers focus on measures to ensure treatment persistence with cheap medications that have substantial public health gains.
“We hope our research may help physicians, health care providers and patients make informed decisions on whether or not to stop aspirin use,” Sundström said in the release. – by Dave Quaile
Disclosures: Sundström reports he has served on an advisory board for AstraZeneca. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts