LOW DOSE ASPIRIN IMPROVES SURVIVAL IN PATIENTS WITH HEART FAILURE

As a population ages, heart failure becomes more common. When we first started to treat heart failure, we had drugs for symptoms relief and that made patients feel better and had less hospitalisation. In the 1980we began to have drugs that will prolong survival while affording symptom relief.\Aspirin has always been there since the 1980s for CAD prevention especially CAD event reduction.
Obviously with an aging population, CAD is the predominant cause of Heart Failure, together with hypertension. Well low dose aspirin has become  important again.
Dr Margaret Bermingham and colleagues from the St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, did a retrospective analysis of some heart failure trial data from studies like WASH, WATCH and WARCEF, where low dose aspirin, high dose aspirin as well as warfarin was used in patients with heart failure. Their study was published in the Feb. 3 issue of the Circulation : Heart Failure.
There were 1,476 patients in the cohort and most of them were on aspirin ( 60% ) and of these, 91% were on low dose aspirin. After 2.15 years followup ( relatively short ), there was a 42% reduction in mortality in those patients who were taking low dose aspirin ( in this case 75mg ) when compared to no aspirin. This 42% is highly impressive, much better than beta blockers and ACEI mortality benefit.
It is worth noting however that this is essentially a meta-analysis ad retrospective.
However, it is also worth noting that is is simple to take 75mg aspirin, unless of course you have known allergy or other important reasons of aspirin intolerance.