VIDEO: Aspirin not as beneficial for CVD prevention as previously thought

BOSTON — Aspirin may not be as beneficial vs. other agents for primary CVD prevention following recent research, according to a speaker at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.

Fred R. Buckhold III, MD, FACP, a professor of internal medicine at St. Louis University, explained that in the early part of his career, aspirin was thought to be “a dogma for treatment and prevention of CVD.”

However, “in the last 5 to 6 years, that dogma has seriously been questioned,” he said.

“A number of trials, particularly those published in 2018, kind of put the issue in question to say it probably doesn’t have as much of a benefit as we thought it does, if any benefit at all,” Buckhold said.

There are several other agents that can be used to prevent or delay CVD, such as statins for cholesterol and hypertension management and newer diabetes agents, he said.

“I think we just have a broader set of tools to use and treat the vast majority of patients and try to prevent [or] delay CVD than what aspirin provides,” he added.

References:

• Buckhold III F. Aspirin’s evolving role in primary prevention. Presented at: ACP Internal Medicine Meeting; April 18-20, 2024; Boston.