| Aspirin is used by millions of patients for the
prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease, the single leading cause of
death in the world. In the largest study to date on the effectiveness of
aspirin, researchers at the Center for Thrombosis Research at Sinai
Hospital of Baltimore recently demonstrated that aspirin resistance is
rare, less than 5 percent, at all doses (81 mg, 162 mg and 325 mg) in patients
with heart disease. The results of study were recently published in the June 11
issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association (DOI:
10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.675587).
Most coronary artery disease deaths are caused by
platelets sticking together and forming blood clots (thrombosis) that block
blood flow within arteries, resulting in a heart attack. By inhibiting clotting,
aspirin keeps platelets from sticking together by specifically blocking an
important enzyme, COX-1.
The occurrence of clotting in patients taking aspirin
therapy has been attributed to the failure of aspirin blocking its target and is
a hot topic in cardiovascular disease today,� said Paul Gurbel, MD, lead
investigator for the study and director of the Center for Thrombosis Research at
Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. However, our data suggest that aspirin blocks
COX-1 with high efficiency.�
The team at the Center for Thrombosis Research at Sinai
Hospital studied 125 patients with a history of coronary artery disease treated
with aspirin. All patients were randomly placed on 81 mg, 162 mg and 325 mg of
aspirin daily for four weeks each for a total of 12 weeks. Then the response to
aspirin was tested by multitude methods. When measuring the ability of aspirin
to block its target, COX-1, it was found highly effective at all dose
levels.
The research also shows that aspirin may be effective
at blocking other pathways that promote platelet activation, independent of
COX-1. Further research is now under way to better understand these additional
pathways that may cause clotting in patients in an effort to continue to improve
patient outcomes,� said Gurbel.
This investigator-initiated study was funded
by an unrestricted educational grant from Bayer HealthCare LLC and Sinai
Hospital of Baltimore.
The study in its entirety can be found online at http://circ.ahajournals.org or by
contacting the LifeBridge Health Marketing Department at 410-601-5528.
Sinai Hospital of Baltimore is a member of LifeBridge
Health, a regional health organization, which also includes Northwest Hospital Center, Levindale Hebrew
Geriatric Center and Hospital, Jewish
Convalescent & Nursing Home, and related subsidiaries and
affiliates.
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