Daily aspirin after a heart attack can reduce the risk of future events, study finds

For individuals who have beforehand had a heart attack, taking a every day aspirin may reduce their risk of a repeat cardiac occasion or stroke, based on a current Danish study.

The findings had been offered at the ESC Congress 2023 in Amsterdam this week.

“Our findings support current clinical guidelines on aspirin therapy following myocardial infarction (heart attack),” stated study writer Dr. Anna Meta Kristensen of Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital in Denmark, in a assertion supplied to Fox News Digital.

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“The key takeaway of our study is that patients who are non-adherent to aspirin therapy following myocardial infarction have an increased risk of a composite outcome consisting of recurrent myocardial infarction, stroke or death compared with adherent patients,” she went on.

“However, the protective effect of aspirin appeared to decrease slightly over time from four years after myocardial infarction and onwards.”

The researchers additionally discovered that amongst girls or people older than 65, failure to take aspirin was not related to hostile outcomes.

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“We recommend that all patients who have had a heart attack stay adherent to their aspirin in accordance with guidelines until randomized controlled trials have proven otherwise and clinical guidelines have been changed,” stated Kristensen.

Aspirin is mostly advisable to be used after a heart attack as a result of it prevents the formation of blood clots. 

It does pose a risk of bleeding, nevertheless.

“Our findings support current clinical guidelines on aspirin therapy following myocardial infarction (heart attack),” stated study writer Dr. Anna Meta Kristensen. (iStock)

Researchers analyzed knowledge from 40,114 sufferers who had been 40 years of age and older, who had their first heart attack between 2004 and 2017, who had a stent positioned — and who then took aspirin for the following 12 months.

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Patients who had been taking anticoagulants or P2Y12 inhibitors, each of which stop blood clotting — in addition to those that had one other heart attack or stroke throughout that first 12 months — had been excluded from the study.

Every two years after the preliminary heart attack, the researchers decided which sufferers had been nonetheless taking every day aspirin after which in contrast the fee of recurrent heart assaults.

Aspirin is mostly advisable to be used after a heart attack as a result of it prevents the formation of blood clots. It does pose a risk of bleeding, nevertheless. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images)

Those who didn’t proceed taking the aspirin had a 29% larger risk of a recurrent heart attack, stroke or demise at two years.

The risk elevated to 40% at 4 years, to 31% at six years and 20% after eight years, the study discovered.

Study had some limitations

“Our results should be interpreted with caution because they show an association but do not establish causality,” Kristensen instructed Fox News Digital.

Also, those that didn’t adhere to every day aspirin-taking may need already been predisposed to have poor well being outcomes — which she known as the “healthy adherer effect.”

“For decades, cardiologists have recommended daily low-dose aspirin — which is usually 81 mg in the U.S.”

“Yet we have made efforts to counteract this possible bias,” she famous. “Our participant selection was limited to individuals who sustained adherence throughout the initial year following their heart attack.”

Because the researchers drew the knowledge from a nationwide registry, they weren’t capable of decide the particular causes that some sufferers didn’t take their aspirin, Kristensen added.

Those who didn’t proceed taking the aspirin had a 29% larger risk of a recurrent heart attack, stroke or demise at two years. The risk elevated to 40% at 4 years, to 31% at six years and 20% after eight years. (iStock)

“Furthermore, our findings cannot be generalized to all patients who experience a heart attack,” she went on, “as our study specifically focused on those who received treatment with a coronary stent and were not taking other medications to prevent blood clot formation.”

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“With that in mind, the results support current guidelines recommending long-term aspirin after a heart attack.”

Cardiologist Dr. Ernst von Schwarz, who practices in Culver City, California, was not concerned in the study however provided his enter on the findings.

Aspirin is advisable for “secondary prevention” however not “primary prevention,” a heart specialist famous. (AP Photo/Emma H. Tobin)

“For decades, cardiologists have recommended daily low-dose aspirin — which is usually 81 mg in the U.S.,” he instructed Fox News Digital. “This has resulted in a reduction of subsequent heart attacks or any cardiovascular events.”

What did change in the revised pointers a few years in the past was that aspirin is now not advisable as “primary prevention.”

The American Heart Association recommends low-dose every day aspirin for individuals who have underlying vascular illnesses, corresponding to coronary artery illness or peripheral artery illness, or who’ve had a stroke or heart attack.

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“This guidance is called ‘secondary prevention,’ and it has never changed,” von Schwarz stated. 

“If someone had a heart attack or a stent placed in the past, this patient should stay on daily low-dose aspirin lifelong.”

What did change in the revised pointers a few years in the past was that aspirin is now not advisable as “primary prevention,” he stated.

The American Heart Association recommends low-dose every day aspirin for individuals who have underlying vascular illnesses, corresponding to coronary artery illness or peripheral artery illness, or who’ve had a stroke or heart attack. (iStock)

“This means we no longer give aspirin to individuals just because they have risk factors for cardiovascular diseases — such as a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol,” the physician famous. 

The pointers modified because of the risk of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract as a consequence of aspirin use, von Schwarz identified.

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“This risk can be reduced by taking aspirin with food but not on an empty stomach, preferably at dinner time, which is supposed to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes that oftentimes occur in the early morning hours,” he stated.