These results emphasize how essential it is to just take aspirin on your physician’s orders and to hold back beginning any non-prescription medications like aspirin till you have actually talked about whether the anticipated advantage surpasses the danger.
According to current research study, stopping making use of aspirin while taking a blood thinner minimizes the danger of bleeding.
Recent research study suggests that you may not require to take a 2nd blood thinner if you currently take one.
In truth, a Michigan Medicine research study exposes that clients’ danger of bleeding issues considerably reduces when they stop taking aspirin while utilizing a frequently recommended blood thinner.
Over 6,700 clients who were being dealt with for embolism (venous thromboembolism) and atrial fibrillation (unusual heart rhythm that can cause stroke) at anticoagulation centers in Michigan were studied by scientists. Despite not having a history of heart problem, clients were offered aspirin in addition to the typical blood thinner warfarin as part of their treatment.
“We know that aspirin is not a panacea drug as it was once thought to be and can in fact lead to more bleeding events in some of these patients, so we worked with the clinics to reduce aspirin use among patients for whom it might not be necessary,” stated Geoffrey Barnes, M.D., senior author of the research study and a cardiologist at the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center.
Aspirin usage amongst clients fell by 46.6% throughout the research study intervention. The danger of a bleeding issue reduced by 32.3% when aspirin was utilized less often, which corresponds to one significant bleeding occasion being avoided for each 1,000 clients who stop taking aspirin. The research study was just recently released in the journal JAMA Network Open
“When we started this study, there was already an effort by doctors to reduce aspirin use, and our findings show that accelerating that reduction prevents serious bleeding complications which, in turn, can be lifesaving for patients,” stated Barnes, who is likewise an associate teacher of internal medication at U-M MedicalSchool “It’s really important for physicians and health systems to be more cognizant about when patients on a blood thinner should and should not be using aspirin.”
This de-escalation of aspirin usage is based upon a number of research studies that discovered worrying links in between the concurrent usage of aspirin and various blood slimmers.
One research study reported that clients taking warfarin and aspirin for atrial fibrillation and VTE experienced more significant bleeding occasions and had more ER sees for bleeding than those taking warfarin alone. Similar results took place for clients taking aspirin and direct oral anticoagulants– who were discovered most likely to have a bleeding occasion however not less most likely to have an embolism.
“While aspirin is an incredibly important medicine, it has a less widely used role than it did a decade ago,” Barnes stated. “But with each study, we are seeing that there are far fewer cases in which patients who are already on an anticoagulant are seeing benefit by adding aspirin on top of that treatment. The blood thinner they are taking is already providing some protection from clots forming.”
For some individuals, aspirin can be lifesaving. Many clients who have a history of ischemic stroke, cardiac arrest, or a stent positioned in the heart to enhance blood circulation– along with those with a history of heart disease– take advantage of the medication.
The difficulty comes when some individuals take aspirin without a history of heart disease and are likewise recommended an anticoagulant, stated very first author Jordan Schaefer, M.D., a hematologist at U-M Health and scientific associate teacher of internal medication at U-M Medical School.
“Many of these people were likely taking aspirin for primary prevention of heart attack or stroke, which we now know is less effective than once believed, and no one took them off of it when they started warfarin,” Schaefer stated. “These findings show how important it is to only take aspirin under the direction of your doctor and not to start taking over-the-counter medicines like aspirin until you review with your care team if the expected benefit outweighs the risk.”
Reference: “Assessment of an Intervention to Reduce Aspirin Prescribing for Patients Receiving Warfarin for Anticoagulation” by Jordan K. Schaefer, MD, Josh Errickson,Ph D., Xiaokui Gu, MD, MA, Tina Alexandris-Souphis, REGISTERED NURSE, Mona A. Ali, Ph armD, Brian Haymart, REGISTERED NURSE, MS, Scott Kaatz, DO, MSc, Eva Kline-Rogers, MS, REGISTERED NURSE, NP, Jay H. Kozlowski, MD, Gregory D. Krol, MD, Vinay Shah, MD, Suman L. Sood, MD, MSCE, James B. Froehlich, MD, MILES PER HOUR and Geoffrey D. Barnes, MD, MS, 19 September 2022, JAMA Network Open
DOI: 10.1001/ jamanetworkopen.202231973
The research study was moneyed by the Blue Cross Blue Shield ofMichigan
