Aspirin therapy does not prevent strokes in about half the population
Aspirin therapy does not prevent strokes in about half the population
27 Jun 2004
Source: Medical News Today
If you have a stroke, or a transient ishcemic attack (TIA) that is caused by a blocked blood vessel you will go to hospital and be put on aspirin therapy. According to Dr. Mark Alberts, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, 47% of us are resistant to aspirin therapy – it offers us no protection. He said 47% of us have ‘aspirin resistance, this is defined as a clotting time of 171 seconds or less.
Dr. Alberts had been monitoring 59 patients, aged about 64 (average). They had all been taking aspiring for three years or more and all of them went on to have a stroke or TIA. They were tested as soon as the hospital diagnosed a stroke or TIA – before anti-clotting therapy started.
63% of them had been on 325mg of aspirin a day, 37% were on 81mg. Aspirin resistance was higher among the low-dose patients.
He also discovered that there was more resistance among the patients who were having enteric coated aspirin (73%) when compared to patients who were on non-coated aspirin (39%).
Dr. Alberts said that ‘one-size fits all therapy’ does not work.