Aspirin After Stroke May Prevent a Another
Aspirin After Stroke May Prevent a Another
June 1, 2000 -- Chalk another one up for aspirin: Researchers have concluded that giving aspirin to stroke victims as soon as they arrive at the hospital reduces their risk of having a second stroke.
In the first few days after having a stroke, patients are at high risk of having another one, says Richard Peto, a professor at Oxford University and co-author of an analysis published in the journal Stroke. "We found that aspirin didn't do very much for repairing the damage done already by the initial stroke, but ... it reduced the likelihood of having another stroke in the hospital," he tells WebMD.
What's more, he says, it appears to be beneficial to give aspirin to stroke victims right away even if doctors aren't 100% sure which type of stroke the patient has had.
There are two kinds of strokes: ischemic stroke, caused by a clot that blocks a blood vessel supplying the brain with blood, and hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, caused by a leaky blood vessel that bleeds into the brain. A CT scan of the head can help a doctor determine if a stroke is the ischemic or hemorrhagic type.
Aspirin, which thins the blood and thereby prevents clots, is currently used to reduce the long-term risks of a second stroke in patients who've had an ischemic stroke. But giving aspirin to patients who've had a hemorrhagic stroke is considered dangerous, as it can cause more bleeding and more damage.
"Basically, doctors on the whole tend to wait for things to settle down; they wait until they're sure of the diagnosis -- whether it is ischemic or hemorrhagic," Peto says. "If you start aspirin a bit earlier -- the first week or two is the time of highest risk -- it's the time actually when aspirin is most protective. And what we have shown is that you can safely start aspirin early on."
Peto and colleagues analyzed the results of two very large studies, involving a total of 40,000 stroke patients, and found that compared to patients who didn't get aspirin, a third fewer of the patients who received aspirin had a recurrent stroke. Put another way, giving aspirin to 1,000 people prevented about nine deaths or recurrent strokes.
Aspirin Taken Right After a Stroke May Prevent a Second One
June 1, 2000 -- Chalk another one up for aspirin: Researchers have concluded that giving aspirin to stroke victims as soon as they arrive at the hospital reduces their risk of having a second stroke.
In the first few days after having a stroke, patients are at high risk of having another one, says Richard Peto, a professor at Oxford University and co-author of an analysis published in the journal Stroke. "We found that aspirin didn't do very much for repairing the damage done already by the initial stroke, but ... it reduced the likelihood of having another stroke in the hospital," he tells WebMD.
What's more, he says, it appears to be beneficial to give aspirin to stroke victims right away even if doctors aren't 100% sure which type of stroke the patient has had.
There are two kinds of strokes: ischemic stroke, caused by a clot that blocks a blood vessel supplying the brain with blood, and hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, caused by a leaky blood vessel that bleeds into the brain. A CT scan of the head can help a doctor determine if a stroke is the ischemic or hemorrhagic type.
Aspirin, which thins the blood and thereby prevents clots, is currently used to reduce the long-term risks of a second stroke in patients who've had an ischemic stroke. But giving aspirin to patients who've had a hemorrhagic stroke is considered dangerous, as it can cause more bleeding and more damage.
"Basically, doctors on the whole tend to wait for things to settle down; they wait until they're sure of the diagnosis -- whether it is ischemic or hemorrhagic," Peto says. "If you start aspirin a bit earlier -- the first week or two is the time of highest risk -- it's the time actually when aspirin is most protective. And what we have shown is that you can safely start aspirin early on."
Peto and colleagues analyzed the results of two very large studies, involving a total of 40,000 stroke patients, and found that compared to patients who didn't get aspirin, a third fewer of the patients who received aspirin had a recurrent stroke. Put another way, giving aspirin to 1,000 people prevented about nine deaths or recurrent strokes.
Source...